Time-honored handicrafts celebrate cultural inheritance

Beijing Gongmei Group has been the home to generations of artists and their crafts that have been passed down throughout centuries.

An exhibition, Inheritance of Ingenuity, is showcasing recent works of six seasoned craftsmen at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing through July 13.

Featured techniques on display include jade carving and neihua — drawing on the inner of a transparent bottle, normally to store snuff tobacco in the past, so that people can appreciate the painting from outside.

The exhibition also presents the tradition of tihong which involves applying a thick layer of red lacquer on a wooden surface and sculpting fine designs on the lacquer.

Also there are display works of qiasi falang: thin strips of metal are bent and curved to form decorative patterns and then joined to the surface of metal wares.