When Miao woodcarving meets the Winter Olympics, whatwill happen?

"Noonecanresistthe love ofsuch a lovely wooden carved 'Bing Dwen Dwen'?" Recently, the wooden carved "Bing Dwen Dwen" which was hand-carved by Shi Yuanqun, the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage of Huayuan Miao woodcarving skills, was posted on the moments of Wechat. The picture of "Wooden Bing Dwen Dwen" with snow as the background instantly received a lot of praise and likes.

At present, the Beijing Winter Olympic Games is in full swing, and the charming Beijing Winter Olympic’s mascot "Bing Dwen Dwen" has a lot of fans and it is too popular to be easily bought. In Huayuan County, Shi Yuanqun, the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage of Miao woodcarving skills at the county level, has achieved the freedom of "Bing Dwen Dwen" with wood and carving knives.

"Bing Dwen Dwen is the mascot of Beijing Winter Winter Olympics. When I saw it on TV, I thought it was very cute. So I carved one myself to contribute to Beijing Winter Olympics, cheer for the Chinese athletes and wish them good performance in the competition."

With enthusiasm and a carving knife, he devoted himself to conceiving and turned the decayed wood into a magic, just for the love deeply rooted in his hearts.

Along the steep bluestone road, you will come to Shi Yuanqun’s home in Buding Village, Shuanglong Town. With a carved stone door and cornice wall made of thin bricks and lime, it is an ancient house with a history of hundreds of years. Shi Yuanqun,born as awood carver born and bred in the Miao family, sits in the courtyard and carefully carves a piece of wood with his chisel. In the courtyard, a variety of finished wood carvings are displayed.

Woodcarving highlights "three parts from labor, seven parts from the heaven".Fromthe age of seven, Shi Yuanqun has grown up watching his father carve wood and he has a deep love for this craft. Most of his works are based on the original and distorted forms of tree roots. Through conception and artistic procession, he creates various and vivid works with shapes of people, animals, utensils and other forms. Shi Shenglin, his eldest son, learned woodcarving from his father when he was a little boy and after four years of study, his works can be comparable with his father’s. Many ordinaryroots, in their eyes, are raw materials rare for woodcarving.

Shi Yuanqun has won many honors such as "Xiangxi on the Fingertips", "Technical Expert", "Productive Protection Expert of Intangible Cultural Heritage" and "First Prize of the Group of Woodcarving Workers in the National Cultural Creative Skills Competition". In Shi Yuanqun's heart;however, he hopes to continue woodcarving and keep it alive. "I want to run a training class so that more young people can learn our Miao woodcarving skills and carry forward this craft."