Valuable ancient artifacts find a new life under a caring hand

Restoring led her to become more inquisitive to the creativity process.

In 2013, she enrolled in the art and design department of the Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade majoring in animation design. She was able to consolidate her skills in painting and design as well as improve her 3D modeling abilities. In the same year, she also began to learn Shoushan Stone carving as an apprentice under artist Liu Beishan in Fuzhou, Fujian province.

Crucially, she got to grips with a technique called jinshan (literally golden repair). This involves gluing shattered pieces of artifacts together with natural materials, including lacquer, powdered gold, silver or platinum.

Tang combines the age-old technique with stone carving skills to make sculptured artworks which were later glued onto the broken artifacts. She then uses powdered gold to color the cracks. Once completed, it looks, well, as good as new.

As Tang acquired a growing reputation as a restorer, she opened a studio under her own name, and began to organize workshops to train young people to master the trade skills. There are now 38 cultural relic restorers working at the studio.