Clay Figurine Zhang

Tianjin's Clay Figurine Zhang tradition was founded in the Qing Daoguang reign by Zhang Mingshan, who earned the studio name "Clay Figurine Zhang" at eighteen and worked from the family workshop Sugu Zhai, said to "shape a likeness at a touch." It entered the first batch of national ICH in 2006.

The craft works pure, fine clay into a figure that is air-dried, fired and then painted; the results are strikingly lifelike, excelling above all at capturing facial expression and the flow of garments.

Passed down through generations including Zhang Yuting and Zhang Jinghu, Clay Figurine Zhang became the standard-bearer of northern Chinese clay sculpture; its work won prizes at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and is known well beyond China.

The Clay Figurine Zhang shop on Tianjin's Ancient Culture Street is a fine place to view the painted-sculpture art.