Decoration & Construction-Material And Social Studies Of Fujian Lacquer Art In Modern History

This article focuses on the modern lacquer art as well as the history of its rise and fall in the Fujian province.The development of traditional lacquer art is always accompanied by the transfer of the political,economic and cultural centers.With the speedy increase in the number of artists and craftsmen,the lacquer art of the Ming dynasty reached its peak in the Chinese feudal history.Starting from the reign of Qianlong and Jiaqingmm,,,,,,Emperor,with the increasing prosperity of lacquer art,Fujian province,which is at the southeast coast of China,has become the center of modern lacquer art in China.Modern "Fujian lacquer art" centers around Fuzhou and Minnan where it merges with the local handicrafts in an ordered way and gives rise to an intellectual form of regional lacquer art.As a supplement to the modern small-scale peasant economy and a part of the folk culture,"Fujian lacquer art" is deeply integrated into all aspects of the material culture in the society and eventually becomes the part and parcel of Fujian's regional culture.The study on the history of modern Fujian lacquer art cannot be conducted alone without understanding the social transformation at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty when the civilians started an intellectual revolution.Nowadays,as the "wave of globalization" has gradually "landed" from the southeast coast of China,Fujian is at the "forefront" of the debate between the east and the west.The revitalization of the commerce has transformed the traditional concepts,cultures and habits inherent in the people,serving as a foundation and a promotor for the development of the modern lacquer art in Fujian.From the perspective of the material culture,modern Fujian lacquer art is the preservation,inheritance and development of the traditional lacquer art in China.It is the aesthetics of creation in an era and a regional spirit that gets reinforced with the material culture.The lacquer art manufacturing methods that are widely known,restored and improved lays a foundation for the prosperity of the modern Fujian lacquer art,which is growing larger in scale.Compared with the lacquer art's progress in the past 8,000 years,the modern Fujian lacquer art exhibits a period of intense growth in type and variety.The diversified demand in internal and external trade is the main cause of the development of paint,crafts and aesthetics in modern Fujian lacquer art.The craftsmen developed new skills based on the old ones from the ancestors,created new manufacturing methods,and worked diligently.Their efforts made the production of the artwork more efficient,the color more beautiful,and the materials,techniques and patterns more innovative.However,after that period,with the political unrest,trading and commerce went stagnant.In order to survive,the lacquer art factories produced paints for civilian use,and the craftsmen turned to lacquer painting.As a result,till now,Fujian lacquer art has portrayed "art"and "skill”differently as two separate artistic conception.In the social and cultural context,some emperors in the Ming and Qin dynasties preferred "Japanese lacquer art." Following the preference of the emperors,the craftsmen madly imitated the foreign lacquer art.Since the transactions of the Japanese lacquer artworks took place mostly in the ports in Fujian,craftsmen,traders and government officials gathered there and formed a great atmosphere for the development of lacquer art.In the modern period,Fuzhou has become the center of Fujian lacquer art.The six generations of the Shen family all contributed to the development of the lacquer art and they became the major forces that drove the Fuzhou lacquer to prosperity.The customs of southern Fujian and Fuzhou were slightly different.The Lacquer thread sculpture was originated from Maxiang Town,Tong'an County and the Cai family was the leader of its development.Hidden in the Yongchun County of the Longshui Village,the lacquer basket craft was a combination of rural lacquer and local(bamboo)handficrafts.In the early stage,it met the needs of the villagers there.With its growth in scale and development,its domestic and foreign sales increased dramatically.The modern Fujian lacquer art goes far beyond the form of a pure art.It is a commodity that is exported to different countries,attracting people from each social level within the field,covering the macro,meso,and micro levels,to jointly create the interactive network and social narrative for those who actively participate in the modern Fujian lacquer art.From the material and social dimensions,in this article,I am looking forward to:reconstructing the development of modern Fujian lacquer art in relation to the field ecology and analyze the influence of those changes that have taken place in the historical process of transforming from a traditional society to a modern society.Only through this way can we observe more clearly the supplementary relationship between traditional craftsmanship and the development of the material society and further make contribution to the revival of the traditional craft art.