Happy New Year! We start the year with a beautiful piece of art from my ancestral town of Chaozhou, with woodcarvings of auspicious themes.
Gilt Woodcarving Large Shrine 金漆木雕大神龛
Woodcarving | Republic of China (1912 to 1949) | Dimensions – H: 330cm, L: 231cm, W:145cm | Guangdong Museum Collection 木雕｜民国（公元1912年-1949年）｜高330厘米，宽231厘米，深145厘米｜广东省博物馆
The Gilt Woodcarving Large Shrine 金漆木雕大神龛 is decorated with wood carved figures, flowers and fruits in mini dioramas, and is the centrepiece of the reproduced sitting room of the Old Residence of the Lin’s Clan 潮州林氏的“西河旧家” in the period of the Republic of China 民国时期.
The entire Teochew residence has been reproduced here, with actual furnitures and furnishings removed from Old Residence of the Lin’s Clan. The layout is a typical Teochew courtyard style house with the Sitting Room 大厅 in the middle, the Lady Room 小姐房 (picture, left) on the left side, and the Main Room 大房 (picture, right) on the right side. And on the wings are Wing Rooms 厢房 (picture, middle), which are multi-purpose rooms for the rest of the family.
The sitting room, or the main living room, is the main place where important guests are entertained and is often the most decorated place of the Chaozhou-Shantou traditional house. I remembered when I was young, we had similar (albeit much smaller) wood carved shrines as the mantlepiece of our living room.
Sitting room of a rich family is decorated with gilt woodcarving and displayed with furnishings, such as screen 屏风, inscribed board 牌匾, table and chairs. Shrine doors 龛门 and shrine head 龛楣 are carved delicately. Shrine door panels take the stories of Wang Maosheng Presenting Wine 王茂生进酒 (right) and Guo Ziyi Celebrating His Birthday 郭子仪贺寿 (left) as the themes.
Watch the videos of the Teochew operas 王茂生进酒 and 郭子仪贺寿
When I was a little boy I used to watch these operas with my dad on VHS as he painstakingly bought them from an importer in Chinatown complex from Chaozhou. These days, you can watch them on YouTube, thanks to enthusiasts and history buffs like me!
Chaozhou (Teochew) Woodcarving 潮州木雕
Chaozhou (aka Teochew) woodcarving 潮州木雕 represents a famous school of folk woodcarving in China, with great popularity in the Eastern Guangdong areas historically under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture including Chaozhou 潮州, Shantou 汕头, Chao’an 潮安, Raoping 饶平, Puning 普宁, Chenghai 澄海, Chaoyang 潮阳, Huilai 惠来 and Jieyang 揭阳.
Originating from the Tang dynasty (618-907), Teochew woodcarving is famous for its richness and subtlety of details, delicate and elaborate designs, exquisite craftsmanship and grand look. There’s an excellent collection in Shenzhen Museum as well as at Green Dragon Temple 青龍古廟 in Chaozhou.
The decorative patterns with rich sense of life and profound representation of local culture, the delicate and microscopic carving and the splendid and glorious lacquering and gold foil coating, are all vivid embodiment of the custom, fashion, culture and spirit of the Teochews.
Despite where the Teochews settle, the woodcarvings are part and parcel of our daily lives, as in the example of the shrine in our home. And with the diaspora, Teochew woodcarvings are also displayed prominently in Peranakan houses here in Singapore, Malacca and Penang.
About Chinese National Treasure Series
中華國寶系列 Chinese National Treasure series feature specific artefacts and relics from museums all around the world that are historically significant to be considered a National Treasure. The series covers the 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation from Neolithic periods before the Xia dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BC) to modern day.
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