Where ancient craftsmanship meets a changing world

In a small workshop in Bafang Shisanxiang (eight neighborhoods and 13 lanes), Yang Xingguo holds an eggshell in one hand, carefully working its surface with a fine carving tool.

The shell is delicate. The lines he etches into it are finer still.

For Yang, a prefecture-level inheritor of Hezhou egg carving, the workshop represents a decade-long journey of turning a hobby into a profession.

He began carving eggs as an amateur at home. Around 2016, local cultural authorities in Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture, Gansu province, discovered his work and offered him a studio in Bafang Shisanxiang, providing a space to create and display his pieces.

Over the past decade, the neighborhood itself has become a source of artistic inspiration.

Yang has carved peonies, traditional architecture and the distinctive gateway of Bafang Shisanxiang onto eggs, while drawing on techniques he has learned from brick and wood carving.

For him, the process is an exchange between different art forms.

"The environment here gives craftsmen good soil to put down roots and create," he says.

One traditional craft that has particularly influenced Yang's work is Linxia brick carving, a distinctive local art form with a history spanning centuries.

Made from locally sourced yellow clay, Linxia brick carving features a wide range of subjects, from flowers and plants to traditional cultural motifs, according to Shen Zhanwei, a national-level inheritor of the craft.

Brick carvings can often be found in mosques, cultural squares and rural stages, making them a familiar feature of the local landscape.

For Shen, finding new ways to present the craft has also meant taking it beyond its traditional architectural settings.

The idea came to him after a visitor admired a large lotus design carved into the brick floor of a mosque. She spent nearly half an hour looking at it and taking photographs, telling Shen that she wished she could take it home. But the piece was simply too large.

"That got me thinking: if a large brick carving could be made smaller, people could take it home," Shen recalls.

He began adapting the traditional designs into smaller decorative pieces, featuring motifs such as peonies, lotus flowers and auspicious symbols. These creations are now sold as souvenirs and gifts, giving visitors a chance to take home a piece of local craftsmanship.

A similar effort to explore new possibilities can be seen in gourd carving.

Bai Zhengbing, a prefecture-level inheritor of Linxia gourd carving, began learning the craft at 17 and has spent more than 30 years working with the material.

He starts by sketching a design on the surface of a dried gourd before using steel needles to carve into its skin. He then applies homemade ink to bring out the intricate lines.

Bai has also experimented with combining Linxia's three signature art forms, Majiayao painted pottery, Hezhou brick carving and gourd carving, incorporating elements of the first two into his own gourd carvings.

This blending of artistic traditions is characteristic of the crafts found in Bafang Shisanxiang.

At the Bafang Folk Museum, a courtyard dating back to 1926 brings together elements of Han wood carving, Tibetan painted decoration and Hui brick carving. Across the neighborhood, more than 60 forms of intangible cultural heritage are showcased through exhibitions, workshops and cultural activities.

For artisans, keeping a tradition alive means finding ways to be relevant to contemporary life. Shen's miniature brick carvings, Bai's affordable gourd-carving products and Yang's eggshell works inspired by local architecture all offer new ways to introduce traditional craftsmanship to wider audiences.

In this centuries-old neighborhood, traditional crafts are not merely being preserved. They are inspiring one another, adapting to changing times and finding new forms of expression.

Yang Mingze contributed to the story.