"Long live manual labor!" Yesterday, China arts and crafts masters (tooth carving) Li and Zhang Minhui, famous paper-cut artists Ye Runsheng and sculptor Wang Zengfeng appeared in Xinhua Bookstore, Beijing Road, Guangzhou, and shouted such a slogan together. On the four weekends of June 5438+ 10, Guangzhou Jade Carving, Guang Xiu, Lan Gao, Xu Enfu, Chen Shaofen and other paper-cutting masters will appear on Beijing Road one after another to participate in the "intangible cultural heritage"? Guangzhou Handicraft Memory "exhibition.

Li and his apprentice performed live tooth carving skills, which attracted many children to watch. While asking questions, he also wanted to try, which made the old man in Guangzhou tooth carving industry smile.

Li has been engaged in the tooth carving industry for more than 50 years, and his family has been engaged in the tooth carving industry for four generations. One of the three national masters of arts and crafts (tooth carving) in Guangzhou. What puzzles Li is that although some graduates of related majors in art colleges have been assigned to work in factories for decades, they all changed careers soon. Nowadays, people who have made a difference in the inheritance of tooth carving are almost all folk craftsmen, and none of them are college graduates. "Our income has been good, but we still can't keep them."

Li admits that with the death of the older generation of artists, some unique skills in Guangzhou tooth carving are in danger of disappearing. "In 2006, after Weng Rongbiao, one of the few masters in China's tooth carving industry, died, none of his disciples could catch up with or completely inherit his seedlings."

Yesterday, Li and his apprentice boldly put forward their ideas. Can Guangzhou's "three sculptures, one color and one embroidery" enter colleges and universities with the help of the government, offer relevant art courses, and cultivate a steady stream of inheritors?