Clay Figurine Zhang

Clay Figurine Zhang (泥人张) is a Tianjin folk art founded in the Daoguang era of the Qing and is among the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage items in the city. Its founder was Zhang Mingshan, born in 1826 and registered as a native of Shaoxing in Zhejiang; at eighteen he took the art name Clay Figurine Zhang and ran a workshop called Shigu Zhai. Five generations have passed the craft on, and a typical figure is about forty centimetres tall, made for indoor display as a painted sculpture in simple, bright colours. In 1915 his painted sculpture Weaving Female Workers won first prize at the Panama international exposition, while the second-generation inheritor Zhang Yuting received an honourable award.