From a Traditional Craft to a Public Cultural Language: Lu Ting and the Contemporary Value of Dongyang Woodcarving

Reporter: Zhou Qinghe When traditional craftsmanship is reconsidered within the context of contemporary society, the central question is no longer simply whether a craft can survive, but what value it can continue to offer today. Dongyang woodcarving faces precisely this challenge. It must preserve its distinctive carving techniques, compositional principles, and accumulated knowledge of materials, while also entering new public spaces, educational systems, and channels of cultural communication. Through his long-term work in woodcarving creation and cultural projects, Lu Ting has developed a form of professional influence that responds directly to this transition. Unlike craft practices centered primarily on individual works, Lu Ting places greater emphasis on the relationship between woodcarving, its surrounding environment, cultural narrative, and public life. He has participated in the restoration, design, and production of woodcarving works for the Palace Museum, the Lingshan Brahma Palace, the main venue of the Hangzhou G20 Summit, the main venue of the Beijing APEC Summit, Quzi Cultural Park, Hengdian Station of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Railway, and other cultural sites and projects. Once woodcarving enters these spaces, it is no longer an isolated object intended only for individual viewing. It must function together with architectural scale, cultural themes, and the movement of the public through the space. Such practices have expanded the boundaries of traditional woodcarving and demonstrated that traditional craftsmanship can participate meaningfully in the creation of modern public cultural environments. A longstanding contradiction within the development of traditional crafts is that, despite their profound historical foundations, they can easily be reduced to regional symbols or products of cultural tourism. Lu Ting does not regard tradition as a fixed collection of forms. Instead, he understands it as a system of methods that remains capable of continued development. The grain of the wood, the weight and rhythm of the carving knife, the opening and closing of spatial layers, and the vitality of the composition constitute the essential language of Dongyang woodcarving. How its themes can enter contemporary life, how its works can adapt to public spaces, and how its techniques can be transformed into knowledge that can be communicated and taught are questions that each generation of practitioners must answer anew. That response is also reflected in the public cultural destinations of Lu Ting’s works. His work West Lake Pearl has been permanently collected by the National Museum of China; West Lake Scenery and West Lake Lotus have been permanently collected by the Zhejiang Provincial Museum; Magnolia and Prosperity has been permanently collected by the China Woodcarving Museum; and Qiantang River Tide, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, and Fishing Homeward Beneath the Pines have been permanently collected by the China Woodcarving Art Museum. Museum acquisition is more than an acknowledgment of an artist’s personal achievement. It signifies that these works have entered systems of public preservation, exhibition, and research, transforming individual artistic creations into cultural resources shared by society. From an industry perspective, this transformation is particularly important. If the value of traditional craftsmanship depends solely on commercial circulation, it can easily be affected by fluctuations in consumer demand. Once it enters museums, public cultural institutions, and educational systems, however, its significance expands. It becomes a material carrier of cultural memory, aesthetic education, and local history. Lu Ting’s works and project experience illustrate the possibility of extending woodcarving beyond the category of a “craft product” and developing it into a form of public cultural content. Lu Ting’s understanding of woodcarving has never remained solely at the level of personal experience. He has published professional articles including A Brief Discussion on the Fundamental Role of Traditional Painting in Dongyang Woodcarving Creation, Three-Dimensional Painting in Inlaid Woodcarving, Artistic Innovation Opens a Vast World: Multi-Layer Relief Carving Begins a New Chapter, and Techniques for Handling Shrinkage and Defects in Dongyang Woodcarving Materials. These writings examine such subjects as pictorial composition, three-dimensional layering, and the treatment of carving materials. Traditional craftsmanship has long depended on oral instruction and hands-on transmission, while many essential judgments remain embedded in what practitioners describe as “the feeling of the hand.” By organizing these experiences in written form, Lu Ting has helped transform implicit personal knowledge into professional knowledge that can be discussed, studied, and passed on. What must be preserved is not limited to completed works and traditional patterns. Equally important are the methods and standards of judgment through which those works are created. As a Zhejiang Arts and Crafts Master, a Full Senior Arts and Crafts Artist, and a Representative Inheritor of the municipal intangible cultural heritage project “Dongyang Woodcarving,” Lu Ting’s significance lies in his ability to connect artistic creation, professional research, and cultural transmission. He has served as a guest professor or specially appointed professor at Zhejiang Guangsha Vocational and Technical University of Construction, Zhejiang Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and Dongyang Vocational Education Center School. Through these appointments, he has introduced practical knowledge of materials, design logic, and production standards from the woodcarving industry into educational settings, helping to narrow the distance between classroom training and real professional practice. Lu Ting’s works have also continued to receive recognition from the arts and crafts industry. In 2009, Heralding Spring received a Gold Award at the China Arts and Crafts “Baihua Cup” evaluation. In 2010, Peach Blossom Spring received the Special Gold Award at the Chinese Fine Woodcarving Exhibition held during the Shanghai World Expo. In 2025, Young Chicks in Frost-Covered Bamboo received the Baihe Emerging Artist Award at the Fifth “Baihe Cup” Arts and Crafts Design Innovation Competition. These achievements, spanning many years, reflect not a single moment of recognition but a consistently high level of artistic creation. Lu Ting represents more than the professional development of an individual artist. His work reflects one possible path for the transformation of Chinese traditional craftsmanship in modern society. Such a transformation requires practitioners to understand history while responding to present realities, to respect the material while adapting to new spaces, and to create individual works while also summarizing professional methods and cultivating future practitioners. This combination of abilities determines whether a traditional craft remains merely an object requiring protection or becomes a cultural force that continues to generate meaning. Viewed from a broader social perspective, the continued development of Dongyang woodcarving is connected to local cultural identity, employment in traditional handicrafts, the aesthetic quality of public spaces, and the protection of intangible cultural heritage. It allows local knowledge and artistic experience to enter national cultural institutions, while enabling traditional Chinese ideas of material creation to participate in wider cultural exchanges. The patience, sense of proportion, respect for materials, and commitment to long-term practice embodied in woodcarving also correspond with a growing global interest in handmade value, cultural diversity, and sustainable design. Lu Ting’s contributions converge across these different dimensions. Through his works, he has preserved significant aesthetic achievements; through cultural projects, he has expanded the practical boundaries of woodcarving; through professional writing, he has recorded and communicated specialized knowledge; and through education, he has connected traditional craftsmanship with a new generation. The importance of his work does not lie in establishing a single path for others to copy, but in demonstrating that traditional craftsmanship can continue to assume new cultural functions in contemporary society. When a carving knife meets wood, it leaves a physical mark. When craftsmanship enters public life, it leaves behind a cultural language that society can understand, share, and continue to pass forward.