Folk Arts for City Slickers

by Phoebe Pullman

photos by Yan Tong

Lily Lee conceived her profound love for Chinese folk arts when she was a student at Renmin University in the late 1980s. Since graduation, she has journeyed all over China collecting traditional Chinese arts and crafts and visiting folk artists in her spare time. Beginning with her beloved red paper cuts, she has discovered many other fine folk art forms in her travels. This October, her painstaking but cheering work culminated in the opening of her own folk art shop - the Red Passion Gallery in Sanlitun, just north of the City Hotel.

"I'm proud I finally made this," Lily says. "I'm now the only person in China to have such a shop selling crafts like these." The shop deals in crafts like clay sculptures by folk art master Yu Qingcheng, bamboo sculptures from Zhejiang in south China, papercuts by Mongolian artists Gao Fenglian, Chang Zhenfang, Liu Jingwen and Sun Erlin, and peasant paintings from north Shaanxi. The pieces are all bought directly from the artists.

Many people are surprised to find Yu Qingcheng's works in her shop and question their authenticity. Lily says she made several trips to Yu's studio in Tianjin to ask him to sell her his works. Yu was finally moved by her persistence. Since the opening, Yu's sculptures have been given pride of place. Lily is the first to mount papercuts and peasant paintings in quality imported frames rather than just rolling them up or putting them in thin plastic bags. She ensures good taste and quality control by looking after the work in her own framing workshop.

Her shop has already attracted both Chinese and foreign customers. A Canadian doctor bought a clay sculpture entitled "Pick up Beans" because he was deeply moved by the bearing of the character. He told Lily it looked just like his mother-in-law.

Red Passion Gallery:

Add: Gongti Beilu (north of the City Hotel), Chaoyang District.

Tel: 86(0)10-65083358.