The Chinese are of all peoples the most skilful in the arts and possessed of the greatest mastery of them. This characteristic of theirs is well known, and has frequently been described at length in the works of various writers. In regard to portraiture there is none, whether Greek or any other, who can match them in precision, for in this art they show a marvelous talent...

...they had come to the palace while we were there and had been observing us and drawing our portraits without our noticing it. This is a custom of theirs, I mean making portraits of all who pass through their country. In fact, they have brought this to such perfection that if a stranger commits any offence that obliges him to flee from China, they send his portrait far and wide. A search is then made for him and wheresoever the (person bearing a) resemblance to that portrait is found he is arrested.

—Ibn Battuta, Ancient Arab traveler

Quanzhou is famed for originating many unique Chinese crafts and traditions, such as fine silk, porcelain, stonemasonry, puppetry. Even today the streets are a nonstop variety show as wandering artisans create insects of grass, or intricate little figurines of colored flour, or in minutes whip out charcoal sketches or caricatures.

While you’re in mystic Quanzhou, stock up on a few of these local treasures (and, as always, e-mail me with your own discoveries or additions). You can also browse online. Google led me to hundreds of fine Quanzhou company websites.

Dehua Porcelain—a limitless variety of fine China, as well as the ivory white porcelain figurines.

Dehua Famous Alcohol—brewed with herbs, it is “pure, mellow, fragrant, and the curative effect is prominent”. Drink enough and you won’t care if you’re cured or not.

Hui’an Stone Carvings and Shadow Carvings. Family portrait, perhaps! Take home a granite dining room set in your carry-on.

Puppet Heads. The hand-carved camphor wood heads are rapidly giving way to mass-produced plastic puppets, so buy them while you can (and while you can afford them).

Old Fan Zhi Magic Lees—a concoction of corn, beans, and over 50 Chinese herbs, it is said to cure everything from stomach and spleen ailments to indigestion.

Silk Flowers and Lanterns. Quanzhou Silk Lanterns are legendary. If possible, visit the city on Lantern Festival (15th day of the Chinese New Year).

Silk is very plentiful among them ... For that reason, it is so common to be worn by even the very poorest there. Were it not for the merchants, it would have no value at all, for a single piece of cotton cloth is sold in their country for the price of many pieces of silk.

—Ibn Battuta, ancient Arab traveler

Qingyuan Tea Cake, made from herbs and tea, has for a century been reputed to be just what the doctor ordered for increasing appetite, strengthening the spleen, (Chinese seem to have a thing about spleens!), helping digestion, etc.

Anxi Oolong Tea—one of the West’s most popular teas two hundred years ago.

Anxi Rattan and Bamboo—several factories produce quality baskets, shelving and furniture; you can even get it made to order. Check the Internet for sites.

Yongchun Preserved Vinegar, a black vinegar reputed to be one of China’s “Four Famous Vinegars”, has been a Quanzhou staple since the Song Dynasty. But I’d be careful with vinegar. “Drink vinegar” is a Chinese euphemism for “jealousy” and infers one’s spouse is unfaithful.

Shishi Sweet Rice Cakes. Dating from the Ming Dynasty, these are said to be some of the best rice cakes, but I wouldn’t know. I prefer German chocolate cakes myself.

FormalPara The Chinese Artisan

I came upon a man in Amoy proper who with his ancestors had for generations made with rare perfection those tiny figures taken from Chinese legend and theater that one here and there sees fashioned in the streets. Made of rice-flour, each mass of dough colored a vivid green, red, blue, and so on with German dyes, the figures, about four inches long, are each spitted on a little stick, which when twirled between thumb and forefinger makes them kick up their legs and wave their arms like whirling dervishes…He worked with his son in the little mud hovel that had served his father and grandfather before him, producing forty figures a day when he worked steadily, setting them up in holes in a board to dry. As he was the only expert, there was a ready sale for all he could make; imitators made them, too, but heir usually cracked even before they dried. He could have made more, one gathered, but being a true, even though unconscious, artist he insisted on always doing his best. The work was entirely free-hand; as the man put it, with his constant smile and an occasional gesture of his rough workman hands with a suggestion of the suppleness of the artist in the fingers, he just made what was in his heart. Real artists neither live in palaces nor wear silks in China. More than once I have seen one who outwardly was only a ragged coolie in a dirty street, sitting at a makeshift bench or table making these fantastic stage figures of colored dough on whirling sticks, or something else as intricate and full of life, while the crowd surged, children jostled and fingered, men quarreled noisily about him, and still his deft fingers plodded on, copying some artistic little thing directly from generations of memory and selling them at a copper or two each.

—Franck, 1925.1

FormalPara Note
  1. 1.

    Frank, Harry A. “Roving Through Southern China,” The Century Co., New York, 1925, p. 198.