Carved Lacquerware (Diaoqi)

Carved lacquer (diaoqi) is a traditional art of building up layers of lacquer on an object and then carving them; its roots reach to the Tang, and by the Yuan and Ming it matured in Beijing and elsewhere into a precious imperial craft.

Dozens or even hundreds of coats of natural lacquer are brushed onto a body, each left to dry; once thick enough, the surface is carved with knives into landscapes, flowers and figures — the red form is called tihong. It is enormously time-consuming and demands the finest blade work.

One of the "Eight Wonders of Yanjing," carved lacquer is inscribed as national intangible cultural heritage; rich, weighty and intricately carved, it stands for the courtly lacquer art of Beijing.

Beijing's arts-and-crafts museums and the Yanjing Bajue collection show fine carved lacquer and its making, conveying the patient art of "building vessels from lacquer and carving with the knife as a brush."