Beijing Women's Federation

The 41th session of the Experience Chinese Culture with Smart Ladies was held in March to celebrate the arrival of the 114th International Women's Day. The live-stream cultural program for international audiences was designed to showcase the spirit and image of hardworking Chinese women and in response to the theme of this year's International Women's Day by the United Nations "Invest in women: Accelerate progress".

Chen Fangcheng, a representative of Beijing Smart Ladies and a representative inheritor of colored sand handicraft making, talked with overseas audience about her efforts to promote the inheritance and development of the intangible cultural heritage and help women around her reap benefits from the special craft over the past decades.

The live-stream cultural program was broadcast live in the Facebook and TikTok accounts of Guangming Daily (gmw.cn). Statistics show that it has been watched by nearly 120,000 times.

Entrepreneurship: Transform Craft to Business at Fingertips

The colored sand craft, which originated from the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907),  employs metal wires to outline and adopts enamel glaze made at high temperatures to create paintings.

Chen became obsessed with the special handicraft for its vibrant colors and charming luster when she knew it for the first time in 2005. Later, she followed Huang Xiaoqun, chief supervisor of Beijing Smart Lady Handicrafts Promotion Society and Beijing's first-class arts and crafts master, to learn the craft.

As general-manager of Beijing Jiuhefang Technology Development Center, Chen has headed employees to successfully transform their colored sand craft business from craft into a business at fingertips and received wide recognition from the public in the process.

When talking about her experience of evolving from an artisan to a businesswoman, Chen said she missed the time when she worked hard to acquire the special craft many years ago, adding that she is responsible for business expansion, plant operation and the management of all other procedures.

Under Chen's leadership, the company has shifted its business orientation from massive production to personalized orders, made consistent improvement of its product quality and design, and gathered a large number of young followers. Therefore, she was awarded "the Most Commercially Valuable Prize" and "the Most Innovative Craftsmanship Prize" at the fourth Beijing Women's Handicraft Innovation and Creativity Competition, in December 2023.

During her business management, Chen has closely adhered to the principle of forging ahead with other women. She has always taken utmost efforts to provide women with reemployment opportunities because she understands their concerns such as unemployment caused by family and childbearing factors. In 2023, Chen's family was named a Most Beautiful Family in Beijing in recognition of her extraordinary achievements.

Under the guidance of local women's federations, Chen and her company has striven to create more flexible employment opportunities for women, built professional platforms for them to acquire craft skills, discover personal values and produce more revenues. They have invited some women to get involved in artistic production during their attendance of community-level open class.

Innovation: Gain Strength from Technological Development

To better align with the Women's Action for Scientific and Technological Innovation, Chen and her teammates have broken down the limitations of rudimentary materials and length of colored sand handicraft and adopted latest digital technology to further promote the development of the special craft. In the past, traditional colored sand craft was only done on wooden boards. Chen and her colleagues have successfully used laser technology to draw lines on such carriers as black granite and create better results in the production of large murals.

In 2016, they created a cloisonné enamel mural, titled "Eighty-Seven Immortals Scroll", on a black granite that was later collected as a precious item by Xu Beihong Memorial Hall. In 2018, they produced a 26-meter-long and 16-meter-high colossal cloisonné enamel mural for Luohe Museum in Central China's Henan Province, which was dubbed as "the world's largest cloisonné enamel mural." 

Last year, they completed a large-scale embedded cloisonné inlay technology-based mural for an exhibition held in a state-level museum. The mural work dynamically showed the interactive scenes between ancient Silk Road and the Belt and Road Initiative, involved both traditional inheritance and technological elements, and made innovations in the form of artistic expression.

Communication: Go Beyond National Borders

Speaking about the promotion of Chinese culture abroad, Chen said that art knows no boundaries and that human emotions are universal. One of her artistic works has won the Award of Excellence for Handicrafts by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

During the live-stream program, Chen displayed her work titled "Golden Thread Cloisonné Inlaid Ostrich Egg," which won the UNESCO's award and another work titled "Badaling Section of the Great Wall," which was collected by some foreign embassies in China.

"As women artisans, we have poured delicate emotions into our works. Human emotions can be shared with others," said Chen. 

During the live-stream program, Chen extended festive greetings to women from home and abroad and hoped that all people of them will cherish their friendship and create a bright future.

Since its inception by Beijing Women's Federation and Guangming Daily (gmw.cn) in 2016, the live-stream cultural event is committed to making the colorful stories of Chinese women in the capital city widely known by people across the world. It has been viewed by domestic and foreign audiences for over 14 million times. The latest session of the program allowed global netizens to learn more about the commitment made by women in Beijing to promote the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese handicrafts, create a better life and deepen their friendship with people across the world.