Fujian to Host Sculpture FestivalThe China Sculpture Festival will be held on September 6 in Fujian Province. More than 300 sculptors worldwide will attend the festival, and 100 of them will take part in a contest. The top prize will be 150,000 yuan (about 18,000 U.S. dollars).Carving seminars, exhibitions and tourism activities will be arranged during the event, to be hosted by Hui'an County, a home of sculpture, together with the China Industrial Arts Association. Carving is a pillar industry in Hui'an. The annual production value of stone carvings is five billion yuan (about 600 million U.S. dollars), and wood carvings earn 400 million yuan a year. The oldest carvings in Hui'an are gravestone images of humans, tigers and sheep carved in relief some 1,600 years ago. Hui'an-made works are seen today in the Great Hall of People in Beijing, a cemetery in the port city of Xiamen and a monument in Jiangxi Province. The largest stone carving in China is a masterpiece by a Hui'an craftsman. The work, now located on Gulang Island in Xiamen, was executed in memory of Zheng Chenggong, who drove Dutch forces out of Taiwan in the 17th century. |
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