Diverse styles

Gan, an esteemed artist committed to carrying on this unique lacquer style into modern times, says there is a debate over how the term xipi originated — it could be inspired by a torn leather saddle or the texture of rhinoceros hide — while "it is agreed that lacquerers discovered the color patterns in nature and managed to replicate them on lacquer".

He says the encyclopedic view of Chinese lacquerwork shows varying features from different regions to reflect local history and cultures, as "some developed a neat, majestic style to fulfill royal requests while others addressed the aesthetic preference of intellectuals to be poetic and aloof".

In the mid-17th century, artisans in southern Fujian province developed a new technique to decorate Buddhist statues with lacquer threads, which further evolved into a homegrown form of lacquered sculpture. When Cai Shuikuang (1939-2021), a lacquerer in Xiamen, Fujian, inherited this family undertaking in the 1950s, it had become a delicate job that Cai later named qi xian diao (lacquer thread sculpture).

The style requires piling and accumulating various diameters of lacquer threads on a lacquer-coated ware to form repeated patterns and complicated motifs of several levels. It can be done on a small porcelain vase or on large temple statues.