Chapter 32 Fuzhou Arts and Crafts Visit Notes

Over the years, every time I went to Tuancheng to visit the Fuzhou Arts and Crafts Exhibition, it gave me new excitement and new joy. Ingenious Fuzhou arts and crafts artists, in the professional production of lacquerware, stone carvings, wood paintings, flower making, etc., have very prominently demonstrated their artistic accomplishment and talent.But before liberation, the varieties and patterns rarely changed.I remember when I was young, every time someone came to my hometown, they always gave us blue landscape painting vases, green cigarette cases, light brown Guanyin statues and so on. It is withered, and the pattern looks tacky. My house also has a set of black coffee tables painted with dragons, which are products of that era.

After liberation, Fuzhou's arts and crafts received special care and care from the party and the government. The scattered artists were recruited back, the industry's production developed rapidly, and the varieties and colors increased greatly.Judging from the three Fuzhou Arts and Crafts Exhibitions in Tuancheng since the founding of the People's Republic of China, each time is indeed better than the last!The color of lacquerware is softer and softer, and the patterns are more novel each time. Wood carvings, ivory carvings and stone carvings have more and more strong flavors of modern life, especially the items in the recent exhibition. Under the guidance of the principle of combination, these more than a thousand new small products, whether tea sets, smoking sets, tableware, stationery, carrying boxes, vases, lampstands, hanging frames, portraits, etc., are very exquisite and vivid, highlighting the It perfectly expresses the local color of Fujian and the beautiful tradition of Fujian folk crafts.These exquisite works of art created by using the province's special products are not just for "display" on the desk in the house, but each of them has its practical effect. In life, it has an immeasurable impact on cultivating and improving the aesthetic ability of the people!

I like to visit arts and crafts exhibitions, and I also like to visit arts and crafts sales offices, which are related to my social activities over the years. Every time we go abroad, we hear foreign friends praise Chinese arts and crafts everywhere; we also see Chinese arts and crafts everywhere in foreign friends' homes, public places and museums.At this time, the most make us feel happy and proud.Last spring, we went to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the Asian-African Writers Conference. Along the way, we passed through Myanmar, India, Pakistan... Our embassies and foreign friends welcomed tea at the airport, and finally passed through the Emirate of Kuwait on the northwest coast of the Persian Gulf. It was already midnight, and I lazily walked towards the waiting room with a hazy tiredness in my eyes. Unexpectedly, in this place where there was neither an embassy nor acquaintances, I found a shelf~* in the corner of the waiting room full of China's porcelain sculpture!Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai are dancing hand in hand, Lin Daiyu is reading a book affectionately, and Jia Baoyu is standing behind her... This pair of Chinese lovers who have traveled all over the world, seeing their relatives flying from the motherland, also There will be surprises and surprises, at least, the unexpected encounter that night will never fade in my vivid memory!

The increasingly frequent international activities of our people should be able to give greater encouragement to our Fuzhou artists. Our relatives - overseas Chinese are all over the world, and our friends are all over the world. They need more, more beautiful and more useful Arts and crafts to comfort their nostalgia for the motherland, to commemorate the sympathy and support of the Chinese people for them.Small and medium-sized arts and crafts that can embody our overflowing feelings and are easy to carry have their contribution to defending world peace against imperialism! (This article was originally published in "Beijing Evening News" on February 13, 1963. It was later included in the collection of essays "Xiaozha Gleaners".)