Mud-made stove painter to pass on his skills

Mud-made stove painting, as its name implies, is done on a mud-made stove. In 2011, it was listed as a State-level intangible cultural heritage item.

Mud-made stove paintings are usually in the shape of a square or rectangle, which symbolizes a dignified and upright personality. Paintings of animals, the God of Fortune, or a story usually appear on the air bellow while flowers are placed at the feet and body of the stove.

Eighty-one-year-old Yang Jinhui, a representative inheritor of Nantong's intangible heritage item Shadi mud-made stove painting in Qidong, started learning the handicraft when he was just six years old.

Yang's business flourished in the old days when people in rural areas often hired bricklayers to build a mud stove in their new house on an auspicious day and paint pictures on it.

Today, mud stoves have disappeared from most rural homes and there are fewer mud stove painters like Yang. He said he hopes the young generation will carry on and promote the traditional handicraft.