Dental carving, an ancient traditional handicraft, emerged as early as Hemudu culture in the Neolithic Age with a history of more than 5,000 years. Changzhou dental carving, which began in the Ming Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty, is a kind of literati carving with great Jiangnan characteristics. Today we take a closer look at the uninherited power of youth in the world of dentistry.

Changzhou Arts and crafts master Xiao Hengkai: The body part is more ink freehand, both true and unreal, also like his cassock, also like a towering cliff, freehand techniques to foil the fine face. And then there's the text in the background, engraved and not filled in as the background. The whole is the depth and shade, the sense of layering is reflected.

Shallow ivory carving is the only national intangible cultural heritage project in Wujin, which can be called a treasure of Wujin. Xiao Jianbo, a native of Niutang, has been engaged in the creation of dental engraving for more than 40 years and is the only master of Chinese arts and crafts in the dental engraving industry. Influenced by his father's careful guidance from childhood, Xiao Hengkai naturally embarked on the road of inheriting the intangible cultural heritage. In 2012, Xiao Hengkai officially began to learn dental engraving. In 2015, his original work Zen Thought won the highest award in the industry, "Baihua Cup" Chinese Arts and Crafts Fine Award.

Changzhou Arts and crafts master Xiao Hengkai: There is still such a heart since childhood, take my father's class, inherit this craft, there is an idea in the heart, but also a affirmation of the idea for so many years.

Chinese arts and crafts master Xiao Jianbo: They can calm down, can assume a great responsibility of inheritance, I feel more happy than my progress. I think he is more thoughtful, has a distinct personality, a very good seedling.

Using a knife as a ghostwriter, there are strokes in the knife method, strokes in the knife method, and the combination of strokes and pens. The unique artistic presentation techniques make the dental carvings not only have the charm of Chinese painting but also lose the taste of gold and stone knife that sculpture pays attention to. Like his father, Xiao holds traditional skills in awe.

Changzhou Arts and Crafts master Xiao Hengkai: My father he thought and innovated a set of ink dental carving knife. The inheritance of skills should first inherit and absorb the ancient traditions of predecessors, absorb some nutrients, and then combine their own feelings and ideas to form the language of dental engraving. So on the one hand pressure, on the other hand is also a valuable wealth.

The heart in a art, its art must work. "Intangible cultural heritage" is a kind of "slow culture". Xiao Hengkai, born in 1991, overcame the "slow culture" with the heart of inheritance and study, immersed himself in the world of dental engraving, and achieved his own artistic language through continuous experience. Over the years, his work has won a number of prestigious awards.

Chinese arts and crafts master Xiao Jianbo: You get a city master, you have to think about yourself in the next step, will fight for such as provincial master, or even national master. After this award is in turn to spur themselves, so that they will continue to progress.

Xiao Hengkai, Master of Arts and Crafts in Changzhou: There are exhibitions every year. I just try my best to attend one or two of them. With my own ideas or inspirations, I take this opportunity to make a work to participate in the evaluation, and also to get some feedback from friends and the audience, so as to adjust myself and know myself.

Changzhou Arts and crafts master Xiao Hengkai: Techniques if you can endure loneliness, through a lot of creation, slowly reach a level. After the technique reaches a level, the competition is a thoughtful, life perception, ah, all aspects including the accumulation of literature and calligraphy, will be expressed in your works.

"Craftsman" is not a kind of identity or label, but insist and adhere to, is decades like a day of tempering, excellence. The succession of "intangible cultural heritage" is like firewood. It is the persistence and innovation from generation to generation that can light up the future of our national culture. (from Changzhou Yanghu network)