WORLD CRAFTS COUNCIL
(WCC AISBL) INTERNATIONAL
Hui'an (China)
The name of "Hui' an" originates from the phrase of "comforting its people with benefits", and Hui'an County boasts of more than 1000 years of history since its foundation in the 6th year of Taiping Xingguo of North Song Dynasty (A.D. 981). Surrounded by mountains and the ocean and sitting opposite to Taiwan across Taiwan Strait, it is one of the famous hometowns of overseas Chinese people and Han people in Taiwan. Hui'an covers an area of 576.67 km2 in land and 1725 km2 in sea, and has 12 towns, 218 administrative villages (communities) and a local population of 760,700 under its governance. With its convenient traffic, breath-taking natural scenery, and many humanistic places of interest, Hui'an boosts of abundant tourism resources and gains the reputation as the "the county of stone sculpture", "the county of construction" and "the powerful county of fishery".
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Originating from the sculpture art along the watershed of Huanghe River in ancient times and boasting of over 1,600 years of history, Hui'an stone sculpture has a long-standing history. It has integrated the culture of central China, culture of Fujian and Zhejiang region and the marine culture, and drawn essence from every historic era, transfonning from Northern style featured with primitive, solid, imposing and demure central-China modeling and simple, rigid lines into Southern style emphasising exquisite, delicate carving, aesthetics in structure, shape and verve. Upon the inheritance and innovation of the masters of different generations, not only has the Hui'an stone sculpture skill been widely applied to four kinds of stones (namely granite, marble, sandstone and jade) and various hard woods and soft woods, but also has it manifested in six primary styles by techniques, including circular sculpture, relief, thread sculpture, shadow sculpture, incised sculpture and miniature sculpture. The works include six big categories, such as monument, city garden sculpture, construction material, religious sculpture and family furniture, works of art, as well as several thousands of sculpture types. It is a miracle rising from the outstanding traditional culture of China, being granted as the titles of "unrivalled skill" and "art excelling nature". The ten buildings in Beijing including Great Hall of the People, Statue of Young Mao Zedong in Jvzizhou, Statue of Zheng He in Malacca, Statue of Martin Luther King in the United States and other famous works showcase the intelligence of Hui'an people and highlight the radiance of Hui'an Sculpture arts.
In September 2013, the county was granted the title of "City of Stone Sculpture in China" from China Arts & Crafts Association, and the county gained the reward again in 2008 and 2012; in June 2006, "Hui'an Stone Sculpture" was elected into the first national non-material cultural heritage list, and was granted the honorary title of "the County of Chinese Folk Sculpture Art (Sculpture)" by Ministry of Culture; in April 2011, and the geographic certification mark for "Hui'an Stone Sculpture" was officially approved by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce of PRC for registration; in October 2013, the county was granted the title of "Chinese Sculpture Art Inheritance Base" by Chinese Folk Artists Association.