Artisan builds models of Chinese navigator Zheng He's fleet, revives glorious adventure

China marked the 19th National Maritime Day on July 11, a day that celebrates the ocean voyages of Chinese navigator Zheng He.

Fu Kunxiang works on a model of a ship of the legendary fleet of Zheng He, a Chinese navigator. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Twenty-one models of the legendary fleet of Zheng He, a Chinese navigator who sailed across Asia and Africa during the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), are on display at a museum in Jinning district of Kunming city, southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The 21 ship models, with a scale of 1:100, are the most popular exhibits at the museum.

Models of the legendary fleet of Zheng He, a Chinese navigator, on display at a museum in Jinning district of Kunming city, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

57-year-old Fu Kunxiang, the artisan who created the models, said by building the models, he wants to create a revival of the glorious adventure. Fu, who has been committed to ship model building for 40 years, is an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of building models of ancient ships in Kunming city, southwest China's Yunnan Province.

According to historical records, Zheng He's fleet consisted of more than 200 different ships, including over 60 treasure ships. The largest treasure ship was about 150 meters long and 60 meters wide.

A model of a treasure ship of Zheng He's fleet built by Fu Kunxiang's team. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Fu and his team went to many places in the country to look for information about Zheng He at local museums, and learned the techniques of building ancient ships from elderly shipbuilders in fishing villages.

Models of ships of Zheng He's fleet, with a scale of 1:50, are on display in Busan, South Korea in 2016. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Fu Kunxiang works on a model of a ship of the legendary fleet of Zheng He, a Chinese navigator. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Fu said it takes about two months to build a model of an ancient ship.

To accurately recreate the ships, Fu and his team adopted the watertight-bulkhead, a traditional craftsmanship for the construction of ocean-going vessels and dougong, an ancient architectural structure used in the construction of ships.

A control building at the stern of a model of a ship of Zheng He's fleet. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

In 2019, the German Museum of Technology in Germany collected a model of a treasure ship of Zheng He's fleet made by Fu. The model received high praise from European experts.

Models of ships of Zheng He's fleet on display during a cultural expo held in Yunnan Province in 2017. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Models of ships of Zheng He's fleet on display at Kunming Foreign Language School in Kunming. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

As an inheritor of the ship model building techniques, Fu also devotes his energies to promoting the craft and the Zheng He culture. He has taught his techniques to an apprentice who was born in the 1980s and worked with many middle and primary schools to promote the traditional ship culture among students.

Now, Fu and his team have completed nearly half of the ship models with a scale of 1:100. The man said that when the ship models are finished, he will embark on a journey to recreate the historical voyage of Zheng He, and display the ship models in places along the new Maritime Silk Road.