Chinese tin craftsmanship passed onto next generation

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The art of traditional Chinese tin craftsmanship is being preserved and passed onto the next generation, with the daughter of Lai Qingguo, the nation's first tin craft master, inheriting her father's skills in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Lai is a famous practitioner of China's traditional tin craft in Gejiu, the country's largest tin exporting and producing city. The master craftsman showed an early talent for painting and became an apprentice at a factory that produced tin artifacts when he was just 16.

In the past, these fine arts were looked down upon in art circles, with many seeing the techniques as insignificant skills. However, Lai showed great interest in tin craft during his career as an apprentice, and in 1983 he was recommended for a three-year course at the Yunnan Arts University, where he learned how to design Chinese fine arts.

In 2007, he was recognized as a master of Chinese fine arts thanks to his achievements in the field of tin craft. But despite his widespread acclaim, Lai's daughter, Lai Weiran, showed little interest in her father's techniques when she was a child.

"I didn't like tin artifacts because in my eyes they were too ugly so I had never touched them. It was nothing new to me because I saw too many of them when I was a child," she said.

Lai never asked his daughter to learn tin craft, instead encouraging her to live a life of her own. It was only at university when Lai Weiran gained a new understanding of her father's job and made the decision to learn his coveted trade once she returned home in 2016.

Lai Qingguo has now set up his own workshop, with the aim of teaching the skills to more young people. Every tin artwork produced in the workshop is carved and inspected by him. He says the key to carrying the traditional handicraft forward is to add more modern elements.