The first Chinese arts and crafts industry master — LI Aizhen
Source: Yuncheng Urban and Rural Collective Industrial Association 
Updated: May 12, 2020  16:16

LI Aizhen, female, born in Jishan County of Shanxi Province in 1957, is the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project and Jishan Luodian lacquer decoration skills. She is also the first art master of China's industrial art industry and the consultant of the lacquer painting art committee of Shanxi Artists Association . Born in a peasant family, after graduating from high school in 1976, she went to the Jishan Arts and Crafts Factory as an apprentice. After ten years of hard work, she established the "Jishan Luodian Lacquer ware Research Center" in 1986 to independently produce Luodian lacquer ware.

In the nearly 40 years of making lacquer wares, Li Aizhen has recruited more than 30 apprentices (including 2 provincial heirs and 1 provincial lacquer art master). In 2008 and 2009, in collaboration with the county labor department, more than a hundred migrant workers received training of Luodian lacquer skills. Since 2013, Taiyuan University of Technology, North University of China, and Yuncheng University have successively established internship bases for college students in the "Jishan Luodian Lacquer ware Research Center" founded by LI Aizhen. From January 2015 until now, the Jishan Luodian Lacquer ware Research Center has cooperated with Jishan County Vocational High School to set up a training class on the production of Luodian lacquer ware, introducing skills to the campus, so as to cultivate talents for inheritance and development of this skill.

LI Aizhen technically overcomes the difficulty that the whole piece of snails cannot be bent on curved objects. And the pattern is innovatively made to imitate the Geyou pattern in Song Dynasty .The carcass is innovatively developed by hand kneading, forming at one time in one whole piece. In style, it inlaid metal calligraphy for better decoration. Luodian lacquer wares equal the beauty of porcelain in terms of such qualities as being flat, bright, moist, refined, smooth, elegant and so on. After procedures such as ashing, draping, brushing, painting, hooking, carving, cutting, grinding, gluing, inlaying, buckling, pushing and other painting techniques, Luodian lacquer wares present the characteristics of traditional folk culture, literature, fine arts and nature in various themes and styles. LI Aizhen's works have been collected by Hubei Provincial Art Museum and Fujian Provincial Art Museum. At the same time, they have been highly praised by domestic and foreign lacquer masters and colleagues. They have won many domestic and foreign industry awards such as "Golden Phoenix" and "Hundred Flower Cup". In December 2016, she was awarded the honorary title of "The First Art Master of Chinese Art and Design Industry" by China Arts and Crafts Association. On December 27, 2016, LI Aizhen's work "Inlaid Luodian Baoxing Flower Tea Table" was collected by Fujian Tuofu Art Museum and participated in the 2017 Second Asian Lacquer Art Exhibition.

In recent years, Li Aizhen has received visits from well-known scholars, teachers and students from many associations such as the Korea-China Cultural Exchange Association, Kyushu National Museum of Japan, National Museum of Thailand, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, and so on. In 2014, QIAO Shiguang, a master of lacquerware art, visited Jishan Luodian lacquerware made by Li Aizhen on site. When he saw the gold and silver flakes, he said, "This is the first time I have ever seen flat gold and silver materials." Afterwards, he wrote an article about this visit and published it in the third issue of China Lacquer in 2015. Years of hard work and persistent pursuit have resulted in the praise of many famous artists, which further strengthens LI Aizhen's confidence in inheriting, innovating and developing the skills of Jishan Luodian lacquer decoration.