Datong coal carving related information

According to Shi Yuping, director of Jinhua Arts and Crafts Factory in Datong Mining Area, who is now committed to the study of coal carving art, after the death of Chairman Mao in the 1970s, an old man in Datong had a whim to carve coal into the face of the chairman to show his mourning. But this is just a kind of folk art with special feelings, and it has not spread among the crowd.

In the 1980s, Zhang Jianxin, a worker of Yungang Grottoes, Yuan Xiaogang, the owner of handicrafts, and Hou Lingshan, who is engaged in photography, had an idea in their hearts, why not imitate the statues of the grottoes, make handicrafts with coal gangue that can be seen everywhere in Datong, and promote Yungang tourism. When they carved handicrafts from abandoned coal gangue blocks and put them on the market, with the rapid development of tourism in Yungang, coal carving handicrafts were favored by Chinese and foreign tourists and received rave reviews at one time. ; The coal carvings in this period are measured by craftsmanship, and the workmanship is very rough. Shi Yuping, who has lived in Yungang for a long time, thinks that making coal carvings is a meticulous work. He loved sculpture since he was a child, and he was quite accomplished in characterization. When he set foot in the art of coal carving, he integrated his carving skills into the production of coal carving, which brought out the best in each other. Shi Yuping is strict with the quality of materials. Coal gangue in Jiangjiawan, Datong is the most precious material. Shi Yuping often travels hundreds of miles there to move stones. He also improved his tools, and now there are more than 30 kinds of tools. His carving techniques are flexible and changeable, and some coal carving images use the expression of light and dark contrast, which makes his works more vivid.

At the first Yungang Tourism Festival, Datong Municipal Government grandly launched the coal sculpture and introduced it in various exhibitions.