Chengdu Lacquer Art

Chengdu lacquer art is the city's traditional lacquerware craft, of long standing; by the Warring States, Qin, and Han, Shu lacquerware was already a precious good, making Chengdu one of China's important lacquer centers, with the craft handed down to the present.

It uses natural raw lacquer in an exacting sequence, body-making, ground-laying, lacquering, polishing, and burnishing, and excels at decorative techniques such as silver-thread inlay, hidden patterns, built-up lacquer, and carved-and-filled work, yielding ornate designs and a warm, mellow sheen.

Chengdu lacquer art carries more than two thousand years of Shu lacquer tradition and concentrates the craft aesthetics of ancient Shu; it entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006 and is an important living technique for studying Chinese lacquerware.

Chengdu lacquer art can be seen taught and shown in the city's craft institutes and museums, where its many decorative steps reveal just how time-consuming and meticulous the work is.