Ｆｏｌｋ　Ａｒｔ：Ｃｌａｙ　Ｆｉｇｕｒｉｎｅｓ（Ｐａｒｔ　ＩＩ）.docVIP

Ｆｏｌｋ　Ａｒｔ：Ｃｌａｙ　Ｆｉｇｕｒｉｎｅｓ（Ｐａｒｔ　ＩＩ） 　　 　　Afew years ago, Beijing’s Summer Palace put together a unique exhibition that featured neither the precious antiques and works of art collected by successive imperial families, nor the sumptuous knick-knacks and everyday utensils used by the emperors and their empresses. On display, rather, were clay figurines usually identified as “folk art” ― that is, art made by and for the lower classes. However, these particular clay artifacts were unique in that their collector was none other than Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), the last of China’s absolute imperial rulers (excluding the “Last Emperor,” Pu Yi). 　　Clay figurines as an art form have a long history in China. In the past, they were commonly fashioned to serve as toys, home ornaments, or symbols of particular spiritual significance, and they were almost exclusively to be found in ordinary people’s homes, having been shunned by the upper classes as being too rustic. The only exception came during the late Qing Dynasty when a clay figurine artist popularly known as “Clay Figurine Zhang,”whose real name was Zhang Mingshan (1826-1906), was introduced to Empress Dowager Cixi, who became an avid collector of his work (see Part I in the July issue). 　　 　　A Clay Art Legend 　　 　　Zhang Mingshan was a native of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. While still a boy, he left home with his father to seek a living wherever one could be found, and together they ended up in Tianjin. The father dug clay for the kilns, and in his spare time made and sold small figurines to get by. Life was difficult, and the young Zhang was forced to drop out of school after a few years of study to become his father’s apprentice. 　　 　　Tianjin in the late Qing Dynasty was a bustling commercial city, made prosperous by virtue of its status as a trading port and hub for Chinese-Western exchange. It was in that cosmopolitan environment that Zhang developed his lifelong fascination with Western culture, using it