Feature: Lord Rabbit gives a model lesson in tradition

Zhang Zhongqiang has had three identities: brush pen maker, clay craftsman and art teacher, but he loves the last one best.

His first two identities intermingled for many years when the Beijinger, who worked at a brush pen workshop, had to moonlight selling clay toys and figurines to foreigners, to earn a better living.

Zhang made a small fortune in the mid 1990s and bought his first home -- a 10 sq meter room in an ancient hutong. Now his wealth has snowballed to two separate rooms in a hutong, and an apartment, due to compensation he received for the demolition of his first room.

He has rented two stores in the hustle and bustle of downtown Beijing, selling Lord Rabbit, a clay figurine which used to be essential to Beijingers' traditions during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but has now become an all-season tourist souvenir.

Zhang is also called Lord Rabbit, or "tu-er-ye" in pinyin, after the figurine he makes and sells.

However, he now spends most of his time at a studio in a school where he teaches children clay craft, leaving his two stores under the care of his wife and sister.

The teaching job is both a source of income and pride. In the old days, handicrafters earned a living on the street and were discriminated, but now Zhang has been honored as a teacher, largely thanks to increasing concerns about cultural protection from both the public and government.

Schools in Beijing and other major cities have launched intangible cultural heritage programs over the past decade, inviting craftsmen and performers into classrooms, presenting their art and skills to inspire the younger generation's interest in tradition.

Zhang began teaching at Daxing Experimental School, a branch of Beijing NO.2 Experimental School, in 2015, giving lessons on clay sculpturing three days a week.

Lord Rabbit is believed to be a god on the moon in charge of health and medicine. In the iconic image of Lord Rabbit, the god usually has a pestle in hand, a tool for pounding medicine.

The craft of making Lord Rabbit clay figurines was nominated as an intangible cultural heritage by the Beijing Municipal Government in 2009, and was inscribed on the national list in 2014. Zhang became a disciple of Shuang Yan, a national-level representative of the craft, in 2015.

Zhang is reluctant to say that his job is to teach children how to play with mud.

"There is culture in my class," he says.

It takes him only a few minutes to show the children how to make a clay toy, and he spends more time telling children traditional stories, teaching them his childhood rhymes or letting them compete to remember Chinese idioms about animals of the zodiac.

The teaching payment of 3,000 yuan per week now contributes to Zhang's steady stream of earnings. His two stores do not earn much more than what makes ends meet after paying the rents.

Zhang says he never expected handicrafts to be a very profitable profession. Though, there have been opportunities to make more money.

The souvenir development team of the Palace Museum invited Zhang to design a Lord Rabbit set based on ancient clay figurines discovered in the Forbidden City. He has finished the work, but rejected an attractive offer to design animated images of Lord Rabbit for other souvenirs such as gadgets, including key rings and handset covers.

In the Forbidden City, 500 or even 1,000 items per day could be sold, more than 30 times his stores' peak sales of Lord Rabbit figurines, but he is not moved.

Zhang has also refused a businessman's bid to use Zhang's Lord Rabbit image on his products.

"It is not the question of money," Zhang says. "I will never agree, no matter how much money he offers."

Zhang shakes his head when asked whether he would open an online shop to boost sales.

"Lord Rabbit is not an ordinary commodity but a kind of culture and tradition you have to experience in a certain environment. Online purchases do not give you that experience," Zhang says.

Zhang offers DIY services at his store in Dashilar, a bustling commercial zone in Beijing and a popular tourist destination.

This narrow, low-ceiling store occupied by shelves of Lord Rabbit figurines can seat four to six people, who can make or paint clay toys or Lord Rabbit, Zhang says.

Zhang grew up in one of Beijing's landmark traditional hutong communities, Liulichang, once a favorite haunt for scholars, painters and calligraphers.

He received no special training in clay sculpture, and prefers to attribute his later passion for the craft to a childhood pastime of playing with mud.

"At that time, I made anything I saw with mud, be it a cat or a dog," he says.

This childhood interest developed into a way of survival in the early 1990s when he found business opportunities with the influx of foreign tourists. Then, as a worker of a brush pen workshop, he began to make Lord Rabbit and other clay figurines and toys in his spare time and sell them near downtown hotels.

In 2000 he opened his first store in Liulichang and another in Dashilar in 2013. The stores target both local buyers and tourists.

In recent years, Zhang says he has witnessed an emerging revival of people's interest and passion for tradition, with more young people coming to his stores.

In addition, there have been other platforms where traditional craftsmen present their art to broader audiences, such as No. 93 Courtyard, a mini museum in downtown Beijing dedicated to the exploration, protection and spread of intangible cultural heritage.

Zhang is regularly invited by the museum to teach children and tourists to make clay toys or paint Lord Rabbit figurines.

Schools have also stepped up their efforts in cultural heritage education, with governmental funding. Besides clay craft, children in the Daxing school where Zhang teaches also learn straw weaving, shadow puppet, folk dance and Kung Fu, according to deputy principal Guo Hongwei.

"Such classes help children understand cultural traditions, and they have begun to like the things that we adults may have forgotten," Guo says.

Guo says the clay sculpting lessons offer joy to both the students and Zhang himself. "He enjoys the teaching very much as, I think, he feels happy to see that his craft is being loved in the classroom."

The craft of making Lord Rabbit has been in danger of disappearance with the loss of tradition amid China's modernization drive. Media reports say that currently there are no more than 20 craftsmen who are making Lord Rabbit in Beijing. Zhang estimates that there might be fewer than that, maybe around 10.

However, he does not expect a radical change in the situation.

"It has to depend on the market. When there are not so many buyers of Lord Rabbit, there will also not be so many sculptors," Zhang says.

"In another sense, too many Lord Rabbits on the market might not be a good thing for us craftsmen, as they might be products of tools and even machines instead of being hand-made. If so, the craft will be in real danger."

Zhang admits that innovation and creativity in Lord Rabbit design might help attract more young fans, but he says that it is not his duty. Zhang says his major duty as an inheritor of the trade is to carry on the tradition.

"After all, young people should know what Lord Rabbit their ancestors worshiped," he says.

However, he has made some changes in the facial expression of Lord Rabbit to make it look more amiable, but he says that is all he can do now. "I cannot go further, otherwise it will not be the Lord Rabbit of our tradition."

Zhang is now 53 years old. He has thought of finding someone to inherit the craft. He once asked his daughter, but she told him that she does not want to do it, particularly when she sees her father's coarse hands weathered by mud.

Zhang says his hope lies in the children and young people at schools. In addition to regular classes in the Daxing school, he is also invited to other primary and middle schools and universities to give lectures and presentations about clay sculpting.

Deng Boge, an 8-year-old in Daxing school, says he enjoys Zhang's class as it is a time he can play. Deng is able to quickly finish a clay rooster or anything Zhang teaches him to make.

The boy has a secret to his speed: he keeps a small piece of extra clay to make a toy of his own, such as the Pea Pod Bomb in the Plants VS Zombies computer game.

Zhang says he is not sure whether his pupils will one day take up his trade: "They face multiple choices when they grow up, but it is good as long as they can learn something about our traditional culture and keep what they have learned in their heart." Endi