China · Wood Carving; Architectural and Furniture Decoration
东阳木雕 (Dōngyáng Mùdiāo); 白木雕 (Báimùdiāo)
Dongyang wood carving is the relief-carving tradition of Dongyang, a county-level city in central Zhejiang. It is called 'white wood carving' because it is traditionally finished only with a clear, transparent lacquer, leaving the natural color and grain visible. Its core is planar relief carving composed in scattered perspective, in thin, shallow, deep, high and multi-layer relief, with double-sided openwork, saw-cut openwork, full-ground carving, colored-wood inlay, and round and half-round carving. Carvers decorate beams, brackets, lintels, screens, windows, beds and furniture; the craft peaked in the Ming and Qing. It is on China's first national intangible heritage list (2006, Traditional Art VII-43). Today it is also a large industry in which hand carving coexists with machine carving.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not listed by UNESCO. Inscribed on China's first national ICH list, 2006 (Traditional Art, VII-43). Protection unit: Dongyang ICH Protection Center. Studio of Lu Guangzheng named a national productive-protection demonstration base (November 2011).
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