Furniture culture of Guangdong furniture

Cantonese furniture continues Lingnan culture.

As a producer of high-grade traditional furniture in China, Guangzhou's history can be traced back to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. According to the industrial section of Panyu County Chronicle, "Huali is one of the carpenters, with its own furniture industry, and more than 100 rooms are located in Henan, which is quite famous". County Records records the period from Tongzhi eight years to Xuantong three years (1869-1911), which shows that Guangdong furniture is not only technically mature, but also has begun to form professional operations in some materials.

Since the mid-Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou, as a foreign trade port, has unique advantages in the source of raw materials and cultural exchanges with the West, which makes it take into account the traditional aesthetic feeling and integrate the characteristics of Lingnan arts and crafts. At the same time, it also absorbed many western painting and architectural art styles such as Baroque and Rococo in modeling style and decorative techniques. Its gorgeous shape means tranquility and luxury, which makes mahogany furniture from fresh and simple in Ming Dynasty to rich and luxurious in Qing Dynasty. The fierce Lingnan culture and the unrestrained western artistic style are combined to form a unique Guangdong furniture style, which is the first fashion. The appearance of this new type of furniture is deeply loved by princes and nobles because of its high-quality materials, exquisite craftsmanship and luxurious Cantonese style.

According to Guangzhou Yearbook; "The business of western-style furniture is booming, but the wages of carpenters are high." Despite the high cost, the rapid popularization of Cantonese furniture in China is still unstoppable. Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing and other furniture production centers at that time were influenced by Guangdong furniture to varying degrees in modeling and sculpture. The most direct embodiment is to introduce Guangdong furniture craftsmen into the office, the palace furniture production center of the Qing Dynasty. This move gives Guangzhou, Jiangsu and Beijing furniture opportunities and places for mutual integration. Finally, as one of the three schools of traditional furniture in China, Cantonese furniture played a positive role in promoting the maturity and development of palace furniture in Qing Dynasty.

The development mode of Guangdong mahogany furniture, which conforms to the times and actively changes and enterprising, still has important reference significance for the development of traditional furniture in China today. The core value of Cantonese furniture in history is a kind of creativity that makes foreign things serve China, makes the past serve the present and dares to break through. An idea of being good at adapting to the environment and knowing how to blend in; A spirit of learning from others and constantly improving oneself. This spirit of creativity, flexibility and innovation is in the same strain as the pioneering spirit in Lingnan culture.

The vigorous vitality of Lingnan culture has never weakened since ancient times. Therefore, we should respect and develop Guangdong traditional furniture with the attitude of "borrowing the past to create the present and bringing forth the new". On the premise of keeping its essence unchanged, combined with the cultural characteristics of the times and the needs of modern life, we will create a new style of Guangdong mahogany furniture.

This new style of Guangdong mahogany furniture should focus on the contemporary cultural characteristics of China, including Lingnan culture, and it is mahogany furniture with a new era style. It is the historical mission and ultimate goal of all Lingnan traditional furniture circles to create Cantonese furniture in the new era, inherit and spread Lingnan culture and embody the spirit of the times.