On the afternoon of January 9th, Wanquan Town Comprehensive Cultural Station of Pingyang County launched the “Childhood —— Pingyang Sugar Painting Sharing Activity”, which brought the sugar painting to the community residents and brought them close to appreciate the unique charm of intangible cultural heritage.
Mr.Zhang Zhigao, the inheritor of intangible sugar heritage painting making skills, was specially invited to participate in this activity.
Zhang Zhigao, a native of Mabu, Pingyang, has been learning sugar painting with Sichuan sugar painting artist Sun Chaogen in his early years, and has been doing so for more than 30 years. After completing his studies, he traveled all over the country to engage in sugar painting skills. In recent years, he has participated in various exhibitions and performances at the county and municipal levels for many times. It was also reported and publicized by various news media. He used to be the director of the Pingyang County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, and was rated as the representative inheritor of the fifth batch of intangible cultural heritage “Pingyang Sugar Painting” in Wenzhou.
At the beginning of the activity, the social worker volunteers introduced the development history of sugar painting to the residents, and personally demonstrated the production skills of sugar painting, only to see him scoop a spoonful of syrup, shake and twist, like Ma Liang’s pen in hand, draw a rabbit in one go, and then glue a bamboo stick, use a shovel to shovel up the sugar painting, a lifelike work is completed, the view is like a painting, the food is delicious, and people can’t help but sigh the unique charm of intangible cultural heritage.
The residents at the scene were eager to see it. “I’ll be a white rabbit” “I’m going to be a butterfly” “I want to draw a dragon” … Everyone wants to experience the process of making sugar paintings for themselves. Under the teacher’s hand-to-hand instruction, after a while, a variety of lifelike animal sugar paintings appeared on the production board, and a simple ingredient jumped on the “board” and turned into a sweet work of art. Looking at the fruits of their labor, they had sweet smiles on their faces, and at the same time they were eye-opening, and they also truly felt the charm of sugar painting, an intangible cultural heritage.
Through this activity, residents were able to get closer and feel the unique charm of the traditional handicraft of sugar painting, which not only enriched their lives, increased their knowledge, but also improved their hands-on ability. During the activity, the residents personally understood and experienced the folk sugar painting craft, felt the essence of Chinese traditional culture and the breadth and depth of folk culture, and also enhanced their strong interest in learning folk culture.