Mahogany carving master Wang Guohua: "Mahogany carving is my life's work"

Choose one thing and do it for a lifetime, for the mahogany carving master Wang Guohua, he said so and did the same. Engaged in mahogany carving for 30 years, Wang Guohua has been improving his carving skills. Born in 1976 in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, Wang Guohua, the hometown of wood carving, has been interested in carving since he was a child. At the age of 16, he began to learn from his teachers, specializing in the most delicate, difficult to learn, and most artistic mahogany carving in the carving process. At the age of 19, he followed his master to Shenzhen and entered Shenzhen Xiangli Craft Furniture Co., Ltd. to become a wood carver.

The birth of a mahogany work is often roughed, polished, and scraped. Wang Guohua is good at every process of mahogany carving, practice makes perfect, and often innovates according to his understanding of mahogany carving. During his deep period, due to his outstanding mahogany carving skills, his mahogany works were well received by users and recognized by professionals.

Wang Guohua said that mahogany carving is a hard job. "When I was 16 years old, I already thought about what I was going to do in the future." In 1992, Wang Guohua, who had just graduated from junior high school, took a knife and a piece of wood and began his apprenticeship in mahogany carving. Just began to learn to carve, his daily work is to knock a few pieces of scraps to chisel, less than a month, Wang Guohua's hands have a lot of blisters, the hands are also cocooned, most of the children of the same age will complain a few words, but Wang Guohua did not complain at all.

Wang Guohua led the team to create many large-scale crafts. Among them, ornaments such as "Eight Juntu Combing", "Four Seasons Flower Combing", "Hundred Birds Combing", "Flower and Bird Screen" are now stored in Shenzhen Mahogany Furniture Museum.

Not only to improve the level of wood carving technology, Wang Guohua insisted on "passing, helping, and leading", teaching a group of apprentices, and passing on his skills to the younger generations without reservation, so that they also had a skill and smoothly entered the workplace.

With the advancement of technology and market changes, the wood carving industry has also developed new, and the original pure handwork has gradually moved towards mechanization. Wang Guohua has his own insistence on this, although he does not resist using the machine to do some basic steps, but prefers to carve by himself. He believed that machine works were cookie-cutter and lacked unique aesthetics. It is only when the wood carver has painstakingly integrated his efforts and ideas into the work that the work has become spiritual.

In 2019, Wang Guohua Guangdong Province May Day Labor Medal. In fact, before that, he had already won quite a few awards and honors. In 2014, he won the special prize of the "Guanlan Cup" National Mahogany Carving Competition; in 2017, he won the title of "Technical Expert of China Furniture Industry" and "Shenzhen Technical Expert"; in 2018, he won the Shenzhen Skills Award. In 2015 and 2018, he was awarded the Shenzhen May Day Labor Medal twice. "Mahogany carving is a love of my life. My strengths and hobbies are all on this. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Wang Guohua said.

Text/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Xiao Huanhuan

Photo/ Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Xiao Huanhuan

Video/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Xiao Huanhuan

Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Cai Lingyue