Skilled craftsman devotes 37 years to become master of traditional wood carving artform in E China’s Anhui

Wang Dehong works on a piece of wood carving at his workshop. (People’s Daily Online/Li Ximeng)

Comprising nine courtyards, 60 rooms of different sizes, and 136 carved beams and painted rafters, as well as covering 2,100 square meters, a residential building located in Hongcun township, east China’s Anhui Province has been dubbed “the Palace Museum in a village” by experts from Beijing’s Palace Museum.

When he was a child, Wang Dehong, a local villager, would always play inside the building. When he turned 16, the young man started to learn wood carving from his grandfather. Now, 37 years have passed since then, and Wang has grown up to become a provincial-level crafts and arts master in Anhui Province, as well as a provincial-level inheritor of the Huizhou wood carving technique, which is a kind of national-level intangible cultural heritage in China.

“As a part of Anhui culture, Huizhou wood carving has distinctive regional characteristics. It boasts exquisite carving skills and inspires people to learn,” introduced Wang.

Wang once spent five years creating a work entitled “Celebrating the Lantern Festival.” The Lantern Festival is considered to be one of the country’s most important holidays. His other works have won many honorary titles and one has even been collected by the Anhui China Huizhou Culture Museum.

In 2018, Wang established a Huizhou carving craft inheritance center with the aim of carrying forward the craft. He has also promoted the carving culture at schools, and has established a workshop at the Anhui Business and Technology College.