East China's Shandong Province has a reputation for its colored glaze products. But like many old handicrafts pushed aside by modern alternatives, the traditional glaze art has few practitioners. But there's still one man in the trade who hopes to attract more followers to the art.

Sixty-year-old Sun Fengjun is a craftsman striving to preserve and continue the passing inheritance of thermal colored glaze art craftsmanship. It's his mission to keep it from falling into antiquity and seen only in museum displays.

Sun heats and melts bars of colored glaze before sculpting them into beautiful shapes - The handicraft dates back to the Tang and Song dynasties and saw a brief resurgence in the 1980s. But now it faces a crisis of becoming a lost as modern handicrafts become more popular.

Sun Fengjun, glaze artist, said, "The critical point to a glaze work is in the detail. We have to be perfectionists to make a fine piece."

From his hometown of Zibo, in eastern China's Shandong Province, Sun has been working at this handicraft for nearly 40 years. And he enjoys a much-deserved good reputation for his work.

Sun believes that the art needs more skilled workers from the younger generations to carry on the craft.

Sun Fengjun said, "I hope I can pass it on to the young. My biggest wish is that there will be many successors."

Fortunately, Sun Fengjun's son, Sun Lei, has been learning the handicraft from his father for 5 years and is able to make some simple crafts already.

Sun Lei said, "Since I was very young, my father's art has had a strong influence on me. I will continue the tradition and try to make some innovations so that more people will come to know our work."

With the coming of the Chinese Spring Festival, Suns' works have seen an increase in sales and popularity. Nevertheless, what Sun Fengjun cares about most is the handicraft drawing attention and gaining a bigger market so as to provide future generations an opportunity to appreciate the splendor of the art of thermal colored glaze.

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