China's Intangible Cultural Heritage Craftsman 2&3 Oil-Paper Umbrella and Butterfly Painting

Heirs of Dreamlike Oil-Paper Umbrella-Making and Butterfly Painting in Blue and Yellow, Parts of China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage

“In truth it is an oil painting that leaves the most profound impression of Sanxingdui on me.”Bi Liufu recalled, a national representative heir to the oil-paper umbrella manufacturing technique,a distinguished part of China's intangible cultural heritage. Having immersed himself in manually oiled paper umbrella skills for more than 40 years, Bi Liufu managed to make an oil-paper umbrella with a diameter of 16.2 meters, breaking the Guinness World Record in 2016. Since then, he has been hailed as the ‘Umbrella King of China’.

A few years ago, Bi Liufu observed an oil painting of some of Sanxingdui's relics at a Chinese intangible cultural heritage event. This painting helped inspire his own Colourful Sanxingdui project.

“I remember that blue and yellow makeup a large part of thatexquisite painting. In my opinion, these are exactly the coloursthat the Sanxingdui relics were3,000 years ago.”As an heir to one part of China's intangible cultural heritage, Bi Liufu has preferred to describe himself as a craftsman. During the process of crafting the Sanxingdui oil-paper umbrellas, Bi Liufu appearedto have a dialogue with the craftsmenof the ancient Shu Kingdom 3,000 years ago.“I believe that Sanxingdui is the result of a combination of wisdom and the spirit of craftsmanship.The ancient people had such superb craftsmanship, all those thousands of years ago.Howadmirablethatis!" With a whiff of nostalgia, Bi Liufu said, “The wooden portions are the key to an excellent umbrella, and the bambooafter August 15 isthe best. Therefore, at that time I will make a new Sanxingdui oil-paper umbrella so that more people can enjoy this fantastic combination of oil-paper umbrellas and Sanxingdui culture.”

“Butterfly painting is yellow-dominated and blue-dotted; their combination makes for a romantic and dreamy scene.”Wang Shihong, Sichuanese craft master and heir to the Luzhou school of butterfly painting, happened to share the same view as Bi Liufu on Colourful Sanxingdui. With rich experience in butterfly painting for over 30 years, Wang Shihong combined yellow Jungle Queen butterflies, blue xxx butterfliesand green Cape York birdwing butterfliesto create his Colourful Sanxingdui project. Luzhou butterfly painting has kept Chinese butterfly culture of thousands of years alive. For this kind of painting, butterfly wings in various shapes are subtly combined into finely arranged planes, while dreamlike textures, patternsand metallic glosses ofdifferent kinds of butterfly wings are integrated to create a unique aesthetic feeling.

In 2006, Wang Shihong saw Sanxingdui’sBronze Human Headsfor the first time on television news. “At the first sight, I find that the eyes in the Bronze Human Headsextremely resemble that ofCape York birdwing butterflies!”He pointedout that the thin and long wings of Cape York birdwing butterfliestookafter the slightly upturned eyes in the Sanxingdui bronze statues; butterfly wings’special textures and glittering glosses echoedthe natural texture of bronze;and additionally, their shared dreamy and romantic hues entrancedhima great deal. Colourful Sanxingdui’s invitation enabled Wang Shihong to bring to life his inspiration of several years before, by creating a couple of dreamlike eyes for the Sanxingdui relics in the form of butterfly painting.