Photo shows a sugar painting work made by Wei Shengguo, the fifth generation inheritor of Wei's sugar painting.
BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Wei's sugar painting, one of the intangible cultural heritages of east China's Shandong Linyi, becomes popular through live-streaming.
Wei Shengguo, the fifth generation inheritor of Wei's sugar painting, made his online sugar painting debut in October 2016. Since then, he and his sugar painting craft have become increasingly popular. Today, his Kuaishou account has 623,000 followers.
"I often live broadcast for 1 hour, while it takes 3 hours to reply to netizens' messages," Wei said.
Thanks to popularity accumulated by the online platform, Wei and his craftsmanship have been seen by more people.
In 2017, Wei Shengguo set up his personal studio in his hometown Fei County in Shandong Province, specializing in inheriting sugar painting skills. Up to now, Wei Shengguo has a total of more than 700 apprentices.
In 2018, Wei's sugar painting was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Linyi City, and Wei Shengguo was invited to participate in an exhibition of traditional Chinese culture held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Besides, on the basis of inheriting traditional techniques, Wei made bold reforms in the color, shape and preservation methods of sugar paintings, thus realizing the sugar painting from monochrome ones to multicolor ones, from flat ones to three-dimensional ones, and from fragile ones to long-term treasures.
Wei is very grateful for the role played by online platforms in the inheritance and dissemination of sugar painting, adding that he is also pleased that his innovation in this traditional craft has been rewarded by the market.
(Edited by Bao Nuomin with Xinhua Silk Road, baonuomin@xinhua.org)
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