Beijing Women's Federation

The fifth episode of the 2022 Experience Chinese Culture with Smart Ladies, a live-stream cultural program co-sponsored by Beijing Women's Federation (BWF) and Guangming Daily, displayed traditional Chinese handicrafts of mounting and framing of calligraphy and paintings to worldwide netizens on September 27. The latest live-streaming was held at an entrepreneurship community in Dongcheng district of Beijing, where the Dongcheng Association of Smart Ladies is located. Statistics showed that it was watched over 200,000 times.

A screenshot of Wang Ying (L) in the live-stream cultural program

Preserving calligraphy and painting works with traditional techniques

Wang Ying comes from Bayannur city, in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. She initially managed a flower shop after arriving in Beijing in 1996. During a visit to the National Art Museum of China in 2010, Wang met Yang Xiaoyang, an inheritor of calligraphy and painting mounting and framing techniques — an intangible cultural heritage. She fell in love with the handicraft, which has a history of over 1,700 years and grew with the rise of the calligraphy and painting arts. It is mainly designed to decorate and preserve calligraphy, painting and stone inscription rubbing works. The craft became mature in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Right now, it has two main schools, namely the school of Beijing and the school of Suzhou (a city in east China's Jiangsu province).

With the fast development of industrial technologies, the mounting tasks can be done by hand, machines or a combination of them, which provide more options for the decoration and preservation of calligraphy and painting works.

A photo taken on September 27 shows Wang Ying (L) in the live-stream program.

Committed to enhancing the integrity and artistic values of calligraphy and painting works

Under the professional guidance of her teacher, Wang has acquired solid mounting, demounting and restoration skills and mastered the spirit of traditional Chinese craftsmanship.

The mounting of calligraphy and painting works is not only a technical job but also requires a combination of artistic knowledge and skills. Therefore, Wang has always endeavored to make her work compatible with the cultural and artistic histories of various calligraphy and painting products. According to Wang, she has often gained strong spiritual strength from the mounting of calligraphy and painting works, which allows her to participate in cultural inheritance and development.

Wang Ying (L) displays her mounting technique of the calligraphy and painting in the live-stream program.

Promoting traditional Chinese culture

Wang became a member of the Dongcheng Association of Smart Ladies in 2016. With the support of the local women's federation and the association, she attended several rounds of training sessions on Chinese and Korean flower arrangement arts and traditional Chinese painting, and won international credentials.

Wang is currently doing her utmost to promote traditional Chinese culture and carry forward the intangible cultural heritage by participating in public-interest programs. For instance, Wang sent her mounted calligraphy works to many residential communities and held interactions with local people about the intangible cultural heritage in the winter of 2017. Last year, she gave dozens of public lectures on traditional Chinese culture and handicrafts in a series of charitable courses held by the Dongcheng Association of Smart Ladies in commemoration of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). During her attendance in the fifth episode of the 2022 Experience Chinese Culture with Smart Ladies, Wang presented her calligraphy and painting mounting and paper-cutting products themed with the 20^th CPC National Congress to global netizens.

Wang Ying (L) displays her mounting technique of a calligraphy work in the live-stream program.

The Experience Chinese Culture with Smart Ladies live-streaming program has been watched 11.15 million times since its inauguration in 2016. It has become one of the major platforms that record the colorful lives and versatile talents of women in Beijing to the world.