Foshan Colour Lantern is a crucial art work in all kinds of folk activities in Foshan and surrounding areas. In the Song Dynasty, Foshan colour Lantern emerged as some folkcustoms arose in Foshan, such as the Lantern Festival and appreciating lanterns on the Mid-Autumn Festival. During the Ming and Qing Dynasty, it was popular to organize folk art competition in Foshan, among which the most popular one was “Holding colour lanterns”, a parade to display colour lanterns. The production of colour lanterns consequently thrived and colour lanterns became significant craft works sold in both domestic and foreignmarkets.

Besides, it is a tradition to hang up a lantern (lantern sounds like “son” in Chinese) at home and the ancestral hall on the Lantern Festival as long as a family beget a son in Foshan. And these families have to hang up another lantern on every Lantern Festival. This tradition has lasted for several hundred years.

The core materials for Foshan Colour Lantern include bamboo splips, iron wires, abrasive paper, silk, patterns, colors and lighting. Depending on different materials, lanterns can classified as bamboo lanterns, abrasive paper lanterns, paper cutting lanterns and special Autumn Parade lanterns. Centuries-long Foshan Colour Lanternis an exquisite craft work and an outstanding representative of Lingnan lanterns as well as one of the main patternsof traditional lanterns in China. It was well acclaimed and widely used in  mainland China ,HongKong, Macau, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Europe and the America where Chinese live. Foshan Colour Lantern was listed on the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.

Yang Yurong - A Master of Foshan Colour Lantern

Foshan Colour Lantern is characterized by celebration and harvest, prayer for good luck and figures of dramas. It is entirely handmade by craftsmen with decoration by the exclusive copper lining paper cutting in Foshan.

Foshan Colour Lantern flourised again due to Yang Yurong. Born in 1945, Yang has been working hard on her career of Foshan Colour Lantern for over 50 years. She not only developed the production of Foshan Colour Lantern but also let her son inheritthecraft techniques. This famous craft master in China has witnessed the amazing history of Foshan Colour Lantern.

71-year-old Yang Yurong is the provincial inheritor of Foshan Colour Lantern. Her father studied oil painting in France and became a professor teaching art  in a university after he returned to China. He was then allocated to FoshanFolk Art Research Institute. Yang moved with family to Foshan. When Yang Yurong was 17,her first job was to work as an apprentice in the institute, learning how to produce paper cutting, colour lanterns and carving from experienced craftsmen. After a few years she could design and produce colour lanterns independently.

Yang is best known for making colour lanterns of flowers, birds, insects and fish. Her early work Lantern of Colour Dragon and Phoenix was printed on stamps, and another representative lanternlampwick and melon seeds won the silver prize of the first provincial folk craft work competition.

In 1997 when HongKong returned to China, Yang and her colleagues  combined traditional craft with modern technology , produced a series of colour lanterns with Chinese characteristics. And it was displayed in the parade at Victoria Harbor in HongKong, catchingthe eye of local media. Many foreigners enjoyed the colour lantern of dragon and praised that Foshan was the hometown of colour dragon. The lantern of Chinese Dragon with 280 meters long and 3 meters high even set a Guinness world record.She was titled as “China Master of Craft Art” by relevant national department in January 2007.

New Inheritor of Foshan colour Lantern

Her son Huang Hongyu majored in architecture, and now he is the municipalinheritor of Foshan Colour Lantern, as he started to learn how to make colour lanterns from her mother since he was young. After retirement, Yang takeslarge colour lantern decoration orders for events and festivals. Meanwhile she and her son keep working on small and exquisite colour lanterns.

That Huang majored in architecture  has brought more modern elements into Foshan colour Lantern. Lantern decoration at present is demanded being pretty as well as being big. Yang passed craft skills to her son, and let him take charge of all the other things.

A large shopping mall in Foshan planned to install customized lantern decoration a few years ago. Huang utilized his professional knowledge in architecture and mechanics structure to get the order. He added that, “We put up and fixed the lantern decoration safely by analyzing mechanic structure, which only professionals would understand.”

“We concentrate on the most traditional method and embodiment, while the young utilize new knowledge to enrich Foshan Colour Lantern,” Yang said. Currently, she works on the innovation of traditional colour lanternsand her son pays more attention on the new Foshan Colour Lanterns. Take the carp lantern as an example. In order to make such a traditional work a more popular style, Huang simplifies it as a DIY production which can be decorated by customers. With the micro LED lighting, the carp lantern would be shining brightly.

The happiest moment for Yang is when the work is lightened. Foshan Colour Lantern has brightened her life for over 50 years. Nowadays the biggest difficulty for inheriting National Intangible Cultural Heritage is industrialization. “Therefore, we put large outdoor colour lanterns as important products,” Yang added, “Besidesseeking more profits, we plan to enlarge the fame and influence of Foshan Colour Lantern. We also produce all kinds of lanterns that can be used in daily life, making Foshan Colour Lantern adapt to modern life.

Unlike some other Foshan intangible cultural heritage that lacks inheritors, Foshan Colour Lantern is inherited in a modern way and being developed well. The hard work by Yang and Huang is significant while Foshan government should carry out more measures as well to promote Foshan Colour Lantern in both domestic and international areas.

Source: Foshan Daily, Xin Kuai Bao 

Written by Clair