The craft of making painted clay-figurines has long been a popular folk art in China. There are different schools of clay-figurine making in terms of styles, including Fengxiang clay figurine in Shaanxi Province, Clay Figurine Zhang in Tianjin, Huishan clay figurine in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and Gaomi clay figurine in Shandong Province.

Hu Xinmin, the leading successor of Fengxiang figurines from Shaanxi Province, and Zhang Hongyue, the fifth generation of ‘Clay Figurines Zhang’ from Tianjin, are at the Olympic Village to demonstrate their skills on the spot.

The Fengxiang figurines are made of local clay, which was mixed with pulp¹ and painted after it was shaped. The colors of Fengxiang figurines are extremely bright, and with intensive contrasts. With a black outline, they are primarily scarlet², green and yellow. The figurines have a wide-range of subjects, including facial makeup³, folklore⁴, historical stories, rural life and others. Their bold and short shapes are widely exaggerated.

‘Clay Figurines Zhang’ was a kind of school of art in northern China. It was initiated⁵ by Zhang Mingshan in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). His clay figurines were very vivid and expressive⁶, and Zhang and his figurines were soon well known in the surrounding area. Zhang not only inherited the legacy⁷ of traditional skills but also incorporated skills from other art forms such as painting, opera singing and Chinese folk wood engravings. People liked his clay figurines very much and gave him the nickname of Clay Figurine Zhang.

Facial masks

Zhao Yongqi, the Lianpu (facial make-up in Peking Opera) artist from Beijing, is invited to the Olympic Village to demonstrate his face-painting skill.