The eggshell is carved with the "Winter Olympic Map"

Sun Kaifu's Winter Olympics theme work "Snow Love" Courtesy of the interviewee

Guangzhou egg carving master Sun Kaifu created "Snow Love" to present the Winter Olympics

Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Huang Zhuhui intern Chen Xiaonan

On February 7th, the Guangzhou Egg Carving Technique Experience Class was held at the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Center. The atmosphere of the experience was warm, and the trainees listened with great interest to Sun Kaifu, the inheritor of the intangible culture of Guangzhou egg carving technology, explained the historical origin and development of Guangzhou egg carving technology, and learned to experience its production, marveling at the strange world carved in small and thin eggshells.

"We turn everyday objects into beautiful works." Sun Kaifu said in an interview with the Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter that eggshells, as key props, come from daily life; and egg carving, as a folk art, is also aimed at feeding and nourishing the cultural life of citizens.

See the beauty of the Winter Olympics in a small egg

Egg carving is a kind of folk art that integrates carving and painting, and is a visual art of carving and hollowing out the surface of the eggshell of poultry eggs. Guangzhou egg carving has a history of 100 years, and now it has been passed down to the fourth and fifth generations. However, compared with the Guangzhou Easter eggs with more practitioners, Guangzhou egg carving is still a niche art.

"In folk, egg carving is also divided into north and south. The Southern Egg Carving absorbs the cultural foundation of Lingnan. As the third generation of Guangzhou egg carving inheritor Sun Kaifu introduced, Guangzhou egg carving integrates elements with Lingnan flavor such as architecture and window flowers, imitates other handicrafts such as ivory carving and jade carving techniques in carving techniques, pays attention to fine carving, micro-carving, and delicate workmanship. Production includes poultry egg shell drilling, hollowing, cleaning, disinfection, painting, carving, decoration and other processes, can achieve a hundred years of non-corruption.

Sun Kaifu has been engaged in egg carving for more than 20 years, and his egg carving works have won many awards in national, provincial and municipal arts and crafts exhibitions, and are known as the leader of egg carving in southern China. In anticipation of the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the 64-year-old Sun Kaifu spent a month carefully carving an ostrich egg carving "Snow Love". The reporter saw that "Snow Love" adopts the form of relief (yin carving, yang carving), line carving, and hollowing, reproducing the Winter Olympic logo, sports icons, snowflake logos, Lingnan window flowers and other elements, which can be described as "a small egg carrying sports in Vientiane".

Open experiential classes to nurture enthusiasts

In addition to finding a successor, the inheritance of egg carving is also to promote popularization. In addition to training students in technical schools and recruiting apprentices in the society, Sun Kaifu will also carry out egg carving experience activities in public places and various institutions, carving simple works such as cartoons, zodiac signs, and mascots. These activities are often amazed and loved by the public. With the gradual increase of enthusiasts, the number of egg carving artists in Guangdong is much higher than in the previous decades.

"The props for egg carving are simple and easy to operate. The most important thing is: the heart should be quiet, and the hands should be steady. Sun Kaifu pointed out the essentials of egg carving skills. At the scene of the event on February 7, the reporter saw that the participants were young and old, and the citizens listened to the explanation while introductorily learning egg carving and actively asking questions. In response to the joy of the Year of the Tiger, many people carved a cute tiger head on the egg shell and exhibited it in front of the camera.