Liuqing Bamboo Carving: A National Intangible Cultural Heritage of China

There are great expanses of bamboo forests along the Yangtze River in China. It produces abundant moso bamboo in Changzhou, Jiangsu. Local people make good use of it. They choose straight bamboo with a smooth and clean surface, and few joints to carve. Boil bamboo to clear up the oil, then take them out and wipe the surface at once. After three to five years of exposure to nature, the bamboo will become perfect raw materials for bamboo carving. Most bamboo carvers are skilled in painting. They draw their imagination on the bamboo surface, then use a knife as a painting brush to apply complex carving techniques on the bamboo surface as on a piece of paper. The carving technique is known as liuqing. It takes much time to practice to complete the work smoothly by knife. Whether a landscape or a poem, all could be carved on bamboo. The bamboo skin is light in color. It turns yellowish over time. The bamboo body grows darker as time goes on. From only a slip of bamboo, people could learn the rich and prosperous culture in regions south of the Yangtze River. Liuqing bamboo carving marks history and records civilization, which has continued to be nurtured on this land.