In 1972, when then-US President Richard Nixon visited China, the Beijing Glassware Factory in downtown Beijing's Chongwen District was one of the highlights of his tour. With great interest, he watched the making of the exquisite artworks with his own eyes.

Now that factory is closed down, but it has been replaced by a new enterprise, which Eric Duluc, president of the Paris-based Federation International du Tourisme, described as "le Palais du Louvre of the People's Republic of China," or China's Louvre, during his visit to Beijing last November.

It is Beijing Baigongfang, the largest handicraft development and production center in China, which had just started operation at that time.

"Baigongfang" literally means "a workshop for 100 kinds of handicrafts." Because it has served as the country's capital for many centuries, Beijing has developed a wide range of highly sought arts and crafts with distinctive local features, some of which date back more than 900 years. And Chongwen District is believed to have been the cradle of Beijing's handicraft industry.

Different from the Louvre, Baigongfang is called a "living museum," where visitors can not only feast their eyes on Beijing's traditional handicrafts, but also see how the masterpieces are created by the magic hands of the masters and can buy any article that piques their fancy, interest or admiration.

"Baigongfang has been created to rescue the declining arts and crafts industry," said Zhu Hong, vice-president of the Beijing Arts and Crafts Association, which has organized over 50 enterprises from across the country to work together in this ambitious project.

Covering 4,000 square meters and with a total investment of nearly 200 million yuan (US$24 million), the workshops are arranged in the layout of a hutong, the lanes of Beijing's traditional residential areas. Each unit has a retail shop in front and a workshop in the back.

In a cloisonne workshop, five craftspeople are busy with their work around a big table. A woman is forming patterns on a roughcast copper vessel with thin strips of copper, and another filling the spaces between the completed copper-strip patterns of another vessel with thick enamel of different colors. Some colorful semi-finished articles are sitting on shelves ready for firing and polishing.

In the next unit, a craftsman puts the final touches to a lacquer painting in his workshop.

Baigongfang currently has gathered over 100 nationally or provincially renowned masters, who direct the work of about 400 apprentices in 17 workshops specializing in such handicrafts as jade and ivory carving, cloisonne, colored glazing and so on. The ultimate hope is to restore the glory of these superb traditional handicrafts, which are threatened with extinction, and to rejuvenate the industry, which has been on the wane because of the lack of qualified young successors.

Beijing's traditional handicrafts used to include about 100 different skills in 60-odd categories, of which ivory carvings, jade wares, cloisonne and lacquer carvings have become famed worldwide.

However, the statistics from the Beijing Arts and Crafts Association showed that there are only 11 categories surviving, with 43 lost or on the verge of extinction.

China's arts and crafts industry was booming in the 1950s and 60s. "At that time, there were 3,000 workers in the Beijing Jade Factory," said Li Bosheng, 64, a master craftsman, who started his jade-carving career 45 years ago. "The jade wares produced in a month would fill a big house, but there still weren't enough to satisfy demand."

Wen Qiangang, 62, a master of lacquer carving, said that the Beijing Lacquer Carving Factory was one of the most sought after places of employment in the industry during the 1970s because of the high prices the products commanded and the bonuses paid to employees.

Heyday & decline

Not only lacquer carving but also all other traditional arts and crafts did very well in Beijing in the 1970s.

"You didn't have to worry about surviving or the need to expand," Wen recalled. "But just look at the depressed state of the industry now."

Because of the huge investment required, traditional Chinese arts and crafts were expensive, and few Chinese people could afford them.

But they sold well thanks to their artistry and sophistication. Lacquer carvings were one of the luxury articles made exclusively for the aristocracy in ancient China. After the founding of New China in 1949, traditional arts and crafts mostly went to the export trade. But given the current competitiveness of international markets, they did not do well because of their high cost.

In the 1990s, the arts and crafts sector shrank dramatically because of low profits and rampant counterfeiting, and quite a few traditional skills died out or were on the verge of extinction. In 2002, the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory, the largest of its kind in China, went bankrupt, putting its backlog of artworks of the latter half of the past century up for auction. So far, seven arts and crafts enterprises have gone bankrupt in Beijing.

Worse, the decline of the industry makes young people reluctant to apprentice under the old masters. The number of highly-skilled craftsmen in the sector has dwindled to about 1,000 at the present time, according to the Beijing Arts and Crafts Association.

Only 10 per cent of workers in the sector are under 30 years of age. Twenty-seven of the masters at the national level are more than 60 years old and retired.

Facing bleak futures and meagre salaries, many craftsmen have sought new employment. Some with arts backgrounds have become interior decorators; some have taken jobs as salespersons to make ends meet and some senior craftsmen, though superbly skilled, have been left unemployed with nothing to do.

Revitalization

The problems plaguing the development of the arts and crafts industry are being addressed by the Beijing municipal government. It has launched a campaign to save the industry.

In 2002, a symposium was held to discuss ways to revitalize the industry. Development plans have been proposed, as well as methods to nurture and retain craft skills and the institution of government policies to support and protect the industry.

In early 2003, the Beijing Municipal Economic Committee issued a development program for Beijing arts and crafts, including building Beijing Baigongfang as a handicraft development and production center in the Chongwen District.

In addition, it set up a special fund with an annual input of 3 million yuan (US$360,000). Master craftspeople are able to draw allowances of up to 800 yuan (US$98) every month for use in training apprentices, in a bid to promote the education of skilled personnel.

In the past decade, there were no established channels through which master craftspeople could sell their products. Now Baigongfang can act as such a channel.

Cui Fang, chairman of the Baigongfang Board of Directors, believes that the best way to provide assistance to the masters is to help them market their masterpieces.

"The masters need sales channels," Cui said. "For years the masters have paid more attention to their skills than to the market. They produce fine works but have few clients."

Zhu Hong, vice-president of the Beijing Arts and Crafts Association, said the demonstration of craft skills at Baigongfang will help visitors appreciate the artistry and training without which traditional arts and crafts could not survive.

In addition, it gives the masters access to markets, and will help them understand how the market functions, he added.

Li Bosheng, an arts and crafts master, hopes that Baigongfang will play the role of sales agent.

"Every master should have his own sales agent," he said.

"(But) you have to have a full understanding of the master's personal traits and his style before promoting the sale of his works."

Li also sees Baigongfang acting as a cradle for the next generation of masters.

"But selling is Baigongfang's first priority, so it has to put finance first, I think. So there is a long way to go before it can put its central focus on cultivating masters," he said.

Cui said that Baigongfang has three foci: crafts demonstration, leisure shopping and research and development.

Baigongfang has established more than 30 specialty workshops and 100 studios for masters for the production of traditional folk arts and crafts.

Visitors can even get involved in the making of the works they buy, under the guidance of masters, according to Cui.

"We will spare no efforts to make Baigongfang a base of research and development for China's arts and crafts," Cui said.

Zhang Tonglu, a cloisonne master, regards Baigongfang as his source of inspiration.

"I can learn about the advantages of various categories and broaden my artistic horizon by sharing views and experience with other masters," he said.

He believes that craftsmen gathering there will surely improve their skills and quality.

"Baigongfang will also play a role in protecting and developing the traditional arts and crafts, which can keep the industry prosperous from generation to generation," he said. "That's the highest priority for the old-generation craftsmen."

(China Daily January 13, 2004)