Home of Plaster Statues—Liuying（Camp Six）Village in Fengxiang，Shaanxi
Fengxiang County in Shaanxi is the nationally famoushome of plaster statuary.Fengxiang has along history of making painted plaster statuary.
That history began in the Western Zhou Dynasty beforethe founding of the Qin Dynasty and has been passeddown among the people for three thousand years tobecome China’s most ancient and most characteristichandmade plaster statue art.The main producing areafor painted plaster statuary today is Liuying（Camp Six）Village，which still carries the name of an ancient militaryunit.
Legend has it that during the time of transition betweenthe Yuan and Ming dynasties，the Camp Six armyunit of Zhu Yuanzhang（1328–1398，founder of the Ming Dynasty）was stationed in the area of today’s LiuyingVillage in Fengxiang County.Many of the soldiers，mostof whom came from Jingdezhen，Jiangxi，famous for itsporcelain，later settled in Liuying.They were all skilled inmaking handmade pottery，and during the slack agriculturalseason made toys and gift items for sale.Over time，this folk art spread，until Liuying Village became knownnear and far as“Plaster Statue Village.”
The plaster statues of Liuying Village use the uniquelocal white clay as the base and are formed using traditionalmanual techniques.The statues are then paintedin highly contrasting colors，mainly red，green and black.
They come in a variety of forms，mainly birds，insects，fish and auspicious fowl and wild animals，stronglyreflecting the wishes of the local people for peace andprosperity.The art of Liuying plaster statues infiltrated the culture of auspiciousness of rural northern China andmainly reflects their desire for a good life，prosperity andtheir wishes to avoid disaster and court good luck as themain themes.In addition to this，their skillful combinationof simplicity and refinement has won them a place inthe art market.
The plaster statues were formerly folk art pieces madeby the local villagers during the slack agricultural seasonand it gave them something interesting to do duringthis normally uninteresting time.They put their work ina handcart and went from village to village to sell themand supplement their meager incomes.Today many villagershave made plaster statuary production their mainoccupation and are prospering from it.Entering LiuyingVillage，one can see partially finished plaster statues everywherethrough many the open courtyard doors.About80 of the 480 households of the village are engaged inmaking statues，producing a total of 350，000 pieces peryear to meet orders of 1 million.Average per capita incomein the village last year was 2，900 yuan，over 70%ofwhich came from making plaster statues.
The plaster statues used to break very easily in transitbecause they were made of plaster and hollow，makingit hard to market them.In 1997，Hu Xinming set up thesmall Fengxiang Plaster Statue Plant in Liuying Village after returning from otherparts of the country workinga migrant worker.
Through trial and errorhe perfected a formula forthe correct proportionsof glutinous rice，cottonand pottery glue to addto the white clay to makeit more resistant to breakage.
This enabled these
next-generation statuesto be sold far and widenationally and internationallyand breathed new lifeinto Fengxiang plaster statues.There are now over 120different types of plastic statues.In 2002 and 2003 threeplaster statue works designed by Hu Xinming，“PeacefulHorse，”“Rich and Powerful Lamb”and“Prosperousand Long-lived Pig，”were chosen by the stamp designdepartment of the China State Post Bureau as main picturesfor its series of stamps on the 12 symbols of Chineseastrology.Hu Xinming has been called a“master ofChinese folk art”by UNESCO.
Formerly there was no mass production in the villageand each individual producing household operatedits own workshop.Then Hu Xinming came up with theconcept of a“mass production plant with the feel of asmall workshop”for the development of the Fengxiangplaster statuary industry.Hu joined together a number ofproducing households in the village and supplied all ofthem with the molds for making statues，the formula formaking the plaster base and various materials requiredfor production.The individual households were responsiblefor turning out a uniform line of products and HuXinming took responsibility for design and sales.Thiscombination has helped the Fengxiang Plaster StatuePlant go far.
