Mr. Malleable: Yan Zhaodong, Dough Sculptor

If some of your happiest childhood memories involve Play-Doh – pinching it, rolling it, smashing it – you’ll be very envious of Yan Zhaodong, who makes his living turning dough into tiny, lifelike sculptures.

Tell me about your skills.
Right now, as we’re sitting here, I could sculpt your face as we talk. Or, if you gave me a photo and took a walk, I’d be finished by the time you came back.

How did you first get into this business?
I am always interested in craft, I came from Shanxi Province where people use to make dough fish, dough chicken and dough rabbits on Mid-autumn day for children. When I moved to Beijing I was still in elementary school and I saw a guy making dough figures in a park one day, starting then I started to pay attention and start to make some simple ones myself. Nowadays, you can hardly see any on the streets.

What’s the hardest part about learning this skill?
I think making the general shape of things is easy but if you really want to give them life then it’s quite difficult. For example, emotions shown in their eyes as well as muscles on the face and body are hard to capture, one simple difference in their lips can alter their emotions dramatically,

Do you know anyone else who does this?
I was quite close with Dough Master Lang Shaoan. He’s very famous in the circle. I was living with him for some time and except the time when he went to the washroom, my eyes were always on him. I watched him making dough figures and learned to make them myself.

Is this also your hobby?
Yes, anything sculpting related, wood carving or clay sculpting, I love craft work when I was little and I kept putting time to understand how it was done and put in a lot of effort to make this happen.

How do you make a living?
By teaching classes, doing demonstrations as well as taking orders. It’s not as easy as it seems but also not extremely hard that the making of it would kill one’s enthusiasm. For a 2-hour session you can make a good one, not complex or detailed, if someone really wants to become a master, that takes hard work and determination like what I did in the old days when the true masters don’t accept any apprentice that’s not their heir, and they only choose sons instead of daughters.

Have you ever purchased dough figurines from other artists?
Actually, that ’s how I star ted: I bought a lot to study the material and shape. I’d met with several famous masters to try to become their apprentice. Unfortunately, no one wanted to accept me because I was not family.

How many figurines have you made in total over the years?
Countless. My apartment is full of these figures in glass boxes. Every night, I have to look at them all; I can’t go to sleep without doing so. And if I go more than a day without sculpting, my fingers get itchy to work with dough.

What’s the strangest request you’ve ever gotten?
Demons. I was asked to sculpt a hero from Romance of the Three Kingdoms capturing demons in his hands. I have not seen a demon with my own eyes; I don’t know what they look like. Maybe toothy with twisted faces? The client didn’t go into specifics, so I looked up some references and used my imagination.

What’s the most common request?
Guan Yu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Chinese people like to have him because he’s a good guardian for the home. His image is known for its power to dispel demons and stop bad things from happening in the house. Foreigners buy these figurines because they like the appearance, but for Chinese, it’s actually for practical purposes.

Are they consumable?
The material was consumable flour but once the sculptures are done, it’s not consumable any more. My dough figures can last 60 to 70 years without any cracks or problems like colors fading or molding which is common if the mixture isn’t right. They can be a gift that lasts one’s lifetime.

What’s the best way to take care of these figurines?
You can put them anywhere where a human being would survive. Not under direct sunlight for too long or in the freezer. Room temperature will do.

When is your busiest season?
July, Spring Festival and sometimes Christmas. Like I said, I make a living by teaching students and doing custom orders, students are free during their summer break and people want to send presents during Spring Festival, some foreigners have ordered my sculptures during Christmas time for their friends.

What’s your favorite dough-based food?
Shanxi hand-pulled noodles – we call it la tiaozi. When I was a kid, we were making noodles at home and some fell on the floor. I began playing with the dough using my foot and realized this texture would be good for sculpting. That’s how obsessed I was at the time. My head was full of ideas about making dough figures even though no one in my family was in this business or had any crafty genes.

Yan Zhaodong will be holding a workshop on Nov 24. To learn more, contact The Gift of Hope (www.giftofhope-ysy.com), a collective of artists with disabilities who are dedicated to promoting traditional crafts.

This article originally appeared on page 7 of the November issue of the Beijinger.