Zhang Tianwei displays his elaborate and delicate works of art depicting people and creatures. Huo Yan / China Daily
Kite maker sees his creations soar as he dazzles spectators with the colors and vision of his imagination
Can humans think in their dreams? Zhang Tianwei has no doubts about the answer. "Yes, I do."
The 79-year-old industrial artist and a retired technician has "thought out" solutions in his dreams to difficult aeronautical engineering problems at least twice in the past three decades. The results are plain to see as his "dynamic kites" in various shapes and sizes astound spectators as they seem to dance and frolic in the sky.
Zhang's kites can make nine movements simultaneously, propelled just by the wind, through built-in gearing systems, which are all handmade from simple raw materials like bamboo, wood and thread.
"The most useful metal pieces come from soft-drink cans, because the aluminum alloy is strong, corrosion resistant and malleable," said Zhang, pointing to a can on his table-turned workbench at home in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.
He cuts the can into 2-millimeter wide strips to make the "teeth" of the gear with a pliers, and a wheel is made from thick bamboo skin strips.
The wind wheel's axle is made from a pencil. He drills small holes into it and inserts thin wooden sticks, 1.5 millimeters in diameter, to fasten cloth or paper, which form the blades of a propeller.
"The diameter of the hole must not be wider than that, otherwise the stick would not be fastened properly," said Zhang. "Any minor errors would end in failure after days of hard work."
With a gust of wind to the wheels of one of his creations, a horse-and-cart frame made up of more than 1,500 pieces of bamboo skin strips tied together with nearly 5,000 knots, the "four-horses" can appear to gallop, shake their heads and swing their tails, and a "rider" can also move his arms to rein in the horses.
To raise the 2-kilogram structure into the air, it takes a 40-meter long kite combination, made up of 192 life-size Terrecotta Warrior kites in eight square formations.
Born into an industrial artist's family, Zhang learned how to make conventional kites from his father and grandfather from the tender age of 10. In the 1930s, his father was famous for making big kites "like small planes" in Xi'an.
But what motivated him to innovate the designs of a traditional kite was his participation in the 1986 First National Kite Competition in Weifang, Shandong province, as a representative of Shaanxi.
