© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Jonker Street, Malacca, MALAYSIA
Sculpturing with dough is a folk art that is a dying tradition and little known off outside China. Based on known written records, dough sculpturing is believed to have dated back to the Han Dynasty (206BC – AD220) where they were made as sacrifices and buried with the dead.
During the Song Dynasty (AD960-1279) the dough sculptures expanded its importance beyond sacrifices to an edible form of art taking shapes of birds, flowers and even people. Its usage continued to grow in importance, and with more and better artisans present, it was made into art pieces and kept in glass boxes until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Today, in places where they can be found, particularly in the Northern parts of China such as Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong and Hebei, dough sculptures are used as food garnishes during wedding ceremonies and festivities in addition to sacrifices and offerings during funerals.
In terms of style, dough sculptures in the Yellow River Valley are simple, crude, unconstrained and profound, while those in the Yang Tze River Valley are delicate, exquisite and polished. Made from well-leavened wheat flour dough, and utilising basic tools such as scissors, tweezers, kitchen knife, comb, Chinese dates and Bunge prickly ash, a skillful dough sculptor is able to knead a few coloured pieces of flour into a vivid figurine within minutes with his bare hands.
Typically measuring 3″ tall, dough sculptures may be made up to 12″ tall or tiny enough to be displayed in half a walnut shell. Whilst they have long provided for study in history and folk lore in Chinese cultural traditions - depicting scenes of the life and times of Emperors, ancient sage, poets and other aspects of Chinese culture and literature - dough sculptures today may take form of other popular genres and modern fictional characters such as Pokemon, Doremon, Spider man, Hello Kitty and the likes to delight children and their parents with the hopes of reviving the trade of dough sculptors – but less so the Chinese art form, tradition and cultural significance.
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