The Art-Craft Boundary in Contemporary Central China: The Case of Root Carving

Abstract

The boundaries between art and handicrafts are rarely clear-cut. Today, in the age of heritage protection in contemporary China, the transition from craftsmen to artist is particularly noticeable and fraught. Usually it is the attributes of products (i.e., tradition or indigenousness, creativity or innovation) that determines whether the products’ producers are artists or craftspeople. However, the producer’s background and the general cultural contexts in which the products are made are also important factors that influence the crossing between these boundaries. An ethnographic field study of folk root carving in the central China highlands reveals three key dimensions concerning the transition from handicrafts to art in this context: increasing one’s intellectual capital; paying less heed to craft-rigidity (jiangqi), or deskilling; and developing relationships with well-known public figures; all of which have been spurred on by current heritage protection projects. While assisting individual craftsmen in crossing the boundary from handicrafts to art at a micro level, these heritage projects have contributed to the maintenance of such a boundary at the macro level.