Ten ancient Chinese craftsmanship

　　Craftsman preserves traditional process

　　The cooper Yu Xinghua, 65, has witnessed booms and slumps with traditional handicrafts since he first started making wooden barrels at the age of 18 in Shuangxi, Jiangxi province.

　　A hooper, or cooper, is a traditional craftsman who specializes in making round wooden containers and utensils.

　　Generally, a cooper joins scattered pieces of planks so as to make wooden barrels in different shapes and sizes through the process of chopping, cutting, sawing, shoveling and connecting by using tools such as an axe, saw, planer, chisel, froe and drill. The basin, bucket and mud bucket in earlier times were all made through this traditional process.[More]

　　Yu Xinghua makes a round wooden container by using traditional handicraft skills at a workshop in Shuangxi, Jiang'an county, Jiangxi province, July 7, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

　　Craftsmen make butter sculptures in China's Tibet

　　A craftsman makes a butter sculpture in Kangxung township of Rinbung county in Shigatse, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, March 27, 2014. There are about 100 butter sculpture craftsmen in Kangxung because of the growing need in market. Butter Sculpture is an ancient and unique genre of art in Tibet which was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council in 2006.[Photo/Xinhua]

　　Dongba papermaking craft in Lijiang

　　He Liwei (M), an inheritor of Dongba papermaking craft, is stewing the plant materials. [Photo/Xinhua]

　　Clay figurines present traditional craft arts

　　This photo shows a clay figurine barber, created by by Qin Shanming, a folk artist from Shandong province, June 14, 2013. Qin's colorful polymer clay figurines present the traditional workmanship of grinding scissors, tinkering and basket weaving, which aims to document local folk culture and provide memories for young people who enjoy looking at them. [Photo by Kong Xiaozheng/Asianewsphoto]

　　Chen Baoyu, who was born in 1980, is the 4th generation of craftsmen to make tin pots, in Mengcheng county, Anhui province and mastered the skill at an early age.

　　He says that the tin pots are entirely handmade and that the heating and other skills are important in the work process. They depend heavily on experience and hand power and there are no fixed standards really.

　　It usually takes about seven days to make one pot and, over the last 10 years, Chen has made more than 1,000 tin pots in various styles, which are now of the property of collectors from Jiangsu, Henan and Shandong provinces.

　　In Anhui, the tin pot craft can only be found in this county, and there are a very limited number of artists who have inherited the tradition.

　　Chen Baoyu (R) learning the technique of making tin pots from his father, Chen Xinghai, near the city of Bozhou, Anhui province, July 28, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

　　Ma Maoting shows a silver headpiece he handmade in a flashback to ancient times on July 24, 2013. Sixty-year-old Ma is from Huangmaoping village of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture in Hunan province. The village has been famous for handmade silver jewelry from ancient times and Ma is the 5th-generation of his family to make a living from their handicraft. It takes nearly 30 steps to make a piece of silver jewelry of the Miao ethnic group. Ma Maoting was honored as heir to Miao ethnic group silver jewelry forging skill in national intangible cultural heritage status in June, 2009.[Photo/Xinhua]

　　Yan Fuyou, 65-years old, makes clay vases at his pottery studio in the suburb of Yizhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on August 4, 2013. He began his career as a pottery apprentice at the age of 14, and has since mastered the skill of hand-made pottery. The pottery craft has come under risk of disintegrating as the small industry has been faced with low efficiency problems and weak profit margins.[Photo/Xinhua]

　　Porcelain restoration, orJu Ci, is an old and demanding Chinese craft first seen inAlong the River During the Qingming Festival, a famous painting by Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145) depicting daily life and the landscape of the dynasty's capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng.

　　It is a big test of a craftsman's ability as the job demands 24 processes and 136 skills. A craftsman first uses a diamond to drill the broken porcelain and then slowly repair it.

　　Fearing the art may be lost to the world, Wu Laojiu, a 32-year-old man from Dehua, Fujian province, has learnt and practiced, breathing new life into an old skill.

　　Copper is pressed into the damaged area. [Photo/CFP]

　　Li Zhiting has spent most of his life surrounded by needles and thread since becoming a tailor at the age of 12. The making of clothes has been a family business for the 92-year-old, who passed on his expertise to his two sons. The business has struggled to make a profit as increasingly people opt for ready-to-wear clothing. It now relies on alterations for survival thanks to villagers in Ganjiang township, Jiajiang county, Sichuan province who are not ready to relegate the Li clan, working together under the same roof, to the annals of history.

　　Sewing always brings a smile to the face of Li Zhiting. Oct 29, 2014. [Photo/IC]

　　Wood engravings highlight Dongba culture

　　Craftsmen work on creating Dongba engravings inLijiangOld Town inYunnanprovince, Nov 7, 2013. Based on legends and folk stories of Dongba culture, craftsmen in Lijiang fuse ancient Dongba pictographs with modern elements in the engravings to attract young customers. There are now hundreds of workshops making the wood engraving products featuring various sizes and patterns. [Photo/Xinhua]