Wenzhou’s ICH Rice Sculpture Made Trendy with the 19th Asian Games Approaching

Have you seen the 19th Asian Games mini-mascots called Chenchen, Zongzong and Lianlian made of cooked rice powder lumps?

Mr. Zhang Tianqing is a representative inheritor of Taishun County's intangible cultural heritage (ICH) ---"rice sculpture". He created three little lifelike 19th Asian Games mascots by his repeatedly modified design, and kneading and moulding several pieces of cooked rice powder lumps for nearly a month. To express his joy of welcoming the sports gala and promote his hometown Taishun, Zhang also made another sculpture work, named the“Roofed Arch Bridge and Dragon Boat Race” with the same material just before the Games opens. The work shows a colorful dragon boat with the Beijian Bridge, one of the cultural landmarks of Taishun, as the background.

Starting from this week, Zhang Tianqing will bring his rice-powder-made mascots to various kindergartens and primary schools in Taishun, and teach children how to make them. To enable them to easily imitate his works, their complex parts, such as the mascots’ headgear, are simplified.

54-year-old Zhang Tianqing, who is from Xiata Village, Da'an Township, Taishun County, has worked on rice sculpture for 16 years. He serves as the cultural ambassador of a village cultural hall. Since childhood, Zhang has followed the elders to make rice sculptures as a hobby, which turned into his career as he grew older. He has been studying the craft, and will teach the next generation on campus how to make the rice sculpture.

"Creating the Asian Games mascots is to make the traditional rice sculpture trendy. Without following trends and innovation, the traditional craftsmanship will fade away as it fails to attract people, especially the young," Zhang told reporters. He deems creating the three mascots as a continuation of his creative concept. In his view, only by using rice sculptures to showcase the most concerned topics and cultural  events can the ICH be widely noticed, and thus be passed down.

In recent years, Zhang Tianqing has been practicing the creative concept. In April 2021, he gained widespread attention and love for his rice sculpture of the Golden Mask, an artifact unearthed from the Sanxingdui site, which was featured in special reports by Xinhua Net and Zhejiang TV. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, he created a rice sculpture themed with"Centennium-old Red Army", depicting lifelike cartoon images of 100 Red Army soldiers. During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, he guided children in making the mascot Bing Dwen Dwen with the rice lumps. He has also created the rice sculptures depicting the She ethnic nationality’s wedding customs, the ancient village of Xuaodi, and the dragon dance on a“piano-key bridge”.

Zhang said that in recent years, his innovated rice sculpture works have been recognized and welcomed by varied circles. During the 2022 Wenzhou Cultural Expo, he received a 600,000 RMB order from Wenzhou Fangwu Mountain Tea Co., Ltd. to produce 15,000 rice sculpture gifts in three years."I hope more young people will join the ICH inheritance team to see that the ancient craftsmanship can pass down from  generation to generation."（ZhongXin）