Bamboo museum celebrates ancient art form

Revitalized Jiading Villa precinct displays a full range of Chinese cultural heritage, reports Weng Shihui.

China's first Bamboo Carving Museum was opened last week in the city's northwest Jiading District to give life to an art form in danger of extinction.

Situated in the tranquil Jiading Villa of Zhouqiao town, the 500-square-meter exhibition hall houses 120 masterpieces collected from Shanghai Museum, Museum of Qingpu District and individual collectors.

The new museum is located in the recently renovated fusion-style Jiading Villa, a property built in 1942 by Jiang Shucai, a merchant from Jiangsu Province.

The 0.67 hectare property combines both ancient Chinese and Western architectural styles with a central lily pond, a pavilion and a stone bridge.

It has a rich cultural heritage in its own right with well-preserved historical sights, old residential houses and elegant water views around the museum.

A seven-floor Fahua Pagoda and the largest Confucius Temple south of the Yangtze River are particularly impressive. Built in 1219, the temple is neighbors with an imperial examination museum and Huilongtan Park, which literally translates to "the pond where dragons gather together." Built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the park is 4.67 hectares with kiosks and terraces lining the lakeshore along with hills that are stepped in an exotic stone design.

The delicate art works in the bamboo carving museum date back to the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the heyday of traditional Chinese bamboo carving.

The museum provides a journey through both bamboo culture and Chinese culture.

Some of the exhibits demonstrate the highest level of Chinese bamboo carving while others are small and delicate, intricately wrought by China's master craftsmen of the time.

Bamboo carving artists will be on site in the museum to demonstrate their techniques and visitors will have a chance to do their own carving.

The district has long been closely connected with bamboo carving culture as one of the two original areas in China that once proliferated with bamboo.

Four hundred years ago, the bamboo carving art was flourishing in Jiading, a heritage that stretches between the late 16th century and early 20th century.

Source: Shanghai Daily