Huang Meng inspects an ornamental dragon display. [Photo/66wz.com]
An exquisite ornamental dragon, an intangible cultural heritage item unique to Yueqing, a county-level city administered by Wenzhou, was shipped to the United States for cultural promotion on Dec 12, local media outlets reported.
It will debut at the first Wenzhou Cultural Festival in New York next May, along with other distinctive intangible cultural heritage items such as boxwood carving, fine line paper-cutting, and indigo printing.
The association of Yueqing natives in the US and other overseas Chinese organizations will promote the event through both online and offline channels.
The ornamental dragon display has a length of 5.2 meters, a height of 3.5 meters, and a width of 2.3 meters. It has a boat structure – the dragon head as the prow, dragon body as the hull, and dragon tail as the stern.
It took Lin Shunkui, the fifth-generation inheritor of the ornamental dragon handicraft, and his son-in-law Huang Meng over a year to complete the display. Lin has been engaged in the craft for more than 50 years and is famous for his exquisite work.
The process of making the ornamental dragon is complex and requires more than half a year of preparations. Craftsmen must be proficient in various vocations such as paper-cutting, carpentry, painting, and machinery.
Ornamental dragon crafting was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage item in October of 2014.
