Legacy Trails: Fish swim through the canvas

Fish rubbing, or lithography, is a technique whereby the image of a fish is printed on a piece of paper or cloth with the help of a real fish. It is said to have evolved from traditional Chinese rubbing techniques dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1276).

In ancient times, fishermen had not mastered the skills of papercutting and calligraphy to be put on Spring Festival couplets. They would instead use ink extracted from cuttlefish to color a dead fish and lay red paper over it to "print" the fish. The red paper would serve as a Spring Festival decoration. However, since cuttlefish ink is organic, it would evaporate and could not be preserved for more than six months. It is thus difficult to find physical evidence of this practice in historical records, said Lu Shenggui, a representative inheritor of this technique in Xiangshan, a coastal county in Ningbo City, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Having conducted field research by talking to local fishermen, Lu has brought this ancient technique back to life. He frequently conducts classes for different groups, from kindergarten children to university professors. He believes that since people are increasingly interested in the arts, the technique has a bright future.

(Video filmed by Zhang Xinyu and Wang Hongjie; cover designed by Li Wenyi and Yin Yating)