Of all the Song Dynasty folklore paintings, the best known is Zhang Zeduan's Qing Ming Shang He Tu, or A Trip Up the River at Qingming Festival. This thousand-year-old picture portrays the prosperity of life along the River Bian, known today as the city of Kaifeng. The work has spawned generations of imitators. But each of these artists has used a different form to pay an affectionate tribute to the time-honored work.
Liu Changshu is a fan of of a kind of illustration that employs an electric iron and wooden board instead of pens and paper. In this 15-meter-long work, Liu had to combine a range of skills to evoke the jostling carts and pedestrians in the busy market. A meticulous hand and eye were needed to etch these roof tiles. Liu says it took him two months to complete the picture.
In Henan, Zhu Xue fell in love with carving when he was just 11 years old. It's not surprising then that he has turned his creative energies into chiseling away at his version of A Trip Up the River at the Qingming Festival. He lives in the area that the picture represents. Five years ago, Zhu took out his knife and started work on his own version of the classic, finally churning out this epic wood relief. Chiseled and carved with a delicate touch, hundreds of figures of domestic animals, carts and houses seem to spill from the scroll. The artist drew inspiration from embroidery, stone carving and the pierced quality of paper-cutting.
(CCTV December 2, 2003)
