Artist shapes a bit of Chinese culture
Over the past three years, Kang Jian has created more than 400 dough sculptures (面塑) and become a city-inheritor (继承人) of the dough sculpture in Mohe, Heilongjiang province.
Kang has shown an interest in art, especially dough sculpture since he was a child. Every time his parents made dumplings, he would ask for a small piece of dough to make animals — a rabbit, a fish or a small. Those small dough animals brought him lots of good childhood memories. However, Kang didn't learn art in college. His family was poor and his parents were not able to afford his art education. Kang left college in 2016 and worked in the Mohe Forestry Bureau.
Then in 2018, during a visit to a museum in Beijing, Kang learned something about dough sculpting. Then he had the idea of taking his childhood interest up. He visited some famous artists and learned to make dough sculptures from them. His skills were improved a lot.
As a fan of Chinese literature, Kang would like to make dough sculptures of Chitese heroes, such as Sun Wukong and Guan Yu. In April 2022, he even finished the dough sculptures of 108 heroes from the novel Outlaws of the Marah after 16 months of work.
When Kang is free, he is invited to give classes at schools to teach students to make dough sculptures. He is happy to have a chance to tell young people about dough sculptures and stories about Chinese folk heroes. He expects more young people to take up this traditional art form.
