Figure

Item number Edz940 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

Public

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Data
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Description

Multicoloured rice paste figure of a phoenix, with large striped tail. Mounted on bamboo stick which is embellished with four rice flour paste flowers with leaves. Somewhat cracked due to drying, with a little black mold.

History Of Use

This figure is intended to be used as a child's toy or household ornament (collector).

Cultural Context

used primarily by children

Iconographic Meaning

Phoenix is an ancient Chinese symbol, associated with 'yin' female, empress; in opposition to dragon.

Narrative

The maker was a very elderly man who made and sold these figures while sitting at the side of a road in Tsuen Wan. He always attracted a large audience of interested people. The artist said that he received his training in Shandong Province, which is in northeast China. The collector, Elizabeth Johnson, never saw any other such artist. There is a photograph of him at work in the documentation file for accession 328 at the Museum of Anthropology.

Specific Techniques

Hand-formed by shaping, rolling, incising, and combing the malleable paste, while selecting the various colours as needed and then adhering the finished shapes to each other and to the bamboo stick that supported the figure and served as a handle. The only tools used were a piece of bamboo and a broken comb.