Wang Jinxiang, a senior crafts artist in Gangzha district, Nantong, Jiangsu province, recently won the Shanhua Award, which is the most prestigious folk arts honor in China. He was the only winner from Jiangsu.

The Shanhua Award, launched in 1999, consists of five types of awards to honor folk artists for their art performances, crafts, literary works, academic writings and lifetime achievements. 

Wang was honored for his folk crafts, and was one of only eight artists to win this type of award around the country. His works were praised as perfect expressions of daily life and art. 

He has been occupied in woodworking for about 40 years and specializes in making mortise and tenon structures. In 2014, he was officially listed as an inheritor of Nantong-featured furniture manufacturing skills, which is a provincial intangible cultural inheritance.

Wang Jinxiang carefully works on a wooden furniture component. [Photo/WeChat account: ntgzsd]

Due to his excellent skills and innovation, he has won several awards in national and provincial arts and crafts competitions. He also won a gold award in a cultural creative design competition.

Wang has collected nearly 400 pieces of Nantong-featured furniture. In order to showcase them, he established a furniture museum which is free to the public. He has also reached agreements with some colleges to make the museum a training center for students.

He said his youngest student is already 48 years old and expressed the hope that incentive policies can be issued to attract more young people to learn about this traditional skill.