On October 31, an exhibition with the theme of Beautiful Land opened in the Palace of Prince Gong in Beijing. It is an exhibition of seal engravings to celebrate the inclusion of this traditional Chinese art on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list.
On October 31, an exhibition with the theme of Beautiful Land opened in the Palace of Prince Gong in Beijing. It is an exhibition of seal engravings to celebrate the inclusion of this traditional Chinese art on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list.
The good news came early on the morning of October 1 from a UNESCO meeting held in the United Arab Emirates. Luo Pengpeng, Executive Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Seal Engraving (CASE), who has been in charge of China's world heritage applications since September 2008, said she felt happy and greatly relieved at the news.
"It was really hard work," said Luo, who had only 10 days to finish all the application materials, including a 10-minute video, 60-minute audio presentation and texts introducing seal engraving art. "The group has only about 10 people and we went all out in our preparations."
Why seal engraving?
"With a history of more than 3,000 years, seal engraving has played a very important role in Chinese culture and is still in practical use nowadays," said Luo, who regards its practical value as the main reason why seal engraving has been handed down for such a long time.
At the very beginning, seals, which are made using knives to engrave an ancient calligraphy style into stones, were used by people as identifying marks, much like signatures today. In the 13th century, this art became more and more popular. It began to incorporate some artistic elements and gradually developed into three types that still exist today. One is purely for artistic use, such as engraving poems in stone; one is purely for practical use, such as the seals used by governments to stamp documents; and one is for both, such as the intricate seals artists use to sign their artwork.
"All forms of art should have social functions, otherwise they won't last long," said Luo. "It is one of the most important elements in UNESCO's view."
However, since the characters engraved in the stones are of ancient calligraphy style, most people today can't identify them and thus categorize seal engraving as a highbrow art. "This is a problem in the spread of this art," said Luo, who has made efforts in recent years to develop more social functions for the seals and make other changes to increase their popularity.
"For example, when the seals are used on teapots, they always appear on the bottom," said Luo. "I moved them from the bottom to the teapots' bodies to make them more visible."
In addition, more Chinese companies are using seals for their company or brand logos in order to show their Chinese cultural characteristics. In 2008, the logo of the Beijing Olympics, a seal with the image of a taiji practitioner, became popular all over the world.
"How to combine seal engraving art with our daily lives is an issue this generation of seal engravers should consider under the new historical conditions," Luo said at the exhibition's opening ceremony.
Luo is now a postgraduate tutor of three students majoring in seal engraving art at the CASE. According to Luo, this is the only institute with a major in seal engraving art that is acknowledged by the State Council and the Ministry of Education. The program was set up in 2006 and began to accept postgraduates in 2007. Luo is China's first postgraduate tutor for seal engraving art.
More than 10 mainland colleges have now set up seal engraving art programs, with more than 1,000 students enrolled, according to the CASE.
Luo also disclosed that there are more than 100 organizations for spreading and developing seal engraving art in China, both folk and official.
"The difficulties in handing down this art to young people mainly lie in two aspects. One is that since all the characters on the seals are in the ancient calligraphy style, which modern people seldom see and use, they have to learn how to write that before they can make the seals. Young people mostly don't have the patience," said Luo. "The second aspect is that more and more people prefer to type instead of writing, let alone use a knife to carve stone."
Exhibitions and exchanges
"Holding exhibitions is one of the ways to inspire creation and raise the creative level," said Luo.
In August 2008, the CASE organized The Eternity of Seals—The First Exhibition of Shoushan Stone Seal Engraving Art of China at the National Center for Performing Arts as one of the important cultural exhibitions during the Beijing Olympics.
Unlike previous seal engraving exhibitions, which displayed only the finished red seals, this exhibition showed the complete story of seal engraving. It paid attention to the exhibition of seal impressions, seal surfaces, seal material and seal knobs, and designed the seal exhibition into an elegant, open studio-style show. It also combined appreciation, calligraphy, book reading, and music enjoyment with a tea party to form an atmosphere and environment of traditional Chinese culture.
Meanwhile, this art form has also gone abroad as part of cultural exchanges.
Held from February 18 to 27, 2006, an exhibition on China's seal engraving culture held in Torino, Italy was the first exhibition of seal engraving art in Europe. The engravers at the exhibition also demonstrated the process of making seals.
In Asia, many exchanges have been made with Japan, Singapore and South Korea. The Eternity of Seals—The First Exhibition of Shoushan Stone Seal Engraving Art of China traveled to Japan in 2008.
The "Beautiful Land" exhibition is also called the Exhibition of Chinese and Japanese Seal Engraving Art. It displays 382 art pieces, including 315 done by Chinese engravers and 67 by Japanese engravers.
Next year, the CASE plans to hold another large international seal engraving exhibition to strengthen exchanges among engravers from different countries.
"The goal of the exchanges is to explore the differences among different cultural backgrounds and learn from each other," said Luo.