Craftsman creates winter sports-themed clay sculptures

(ECNS) -- Xie Siguang, 54, from Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, is the representative inheritor of the clay sculpture, an intangible cultural heritage in Zhangjiakou.

He has loved clay sculpture since childhood, and often creates works reflecting the local conditions and customs beyond the Great Wall with clay and soft pottery.

He plans to complete a series of winter sports-themed works, including a clay sculpture of the National Ski Jumping Center in Zhangjiakou before the 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Xie skied when he was young, but he seldom skied as he grew older.

He now skis again and observes the postures and expressions of skiers for inspiration.

He also looks through winter sports-related knowledge and watches a large number of videos and photos of the games.

He successfully created the first batch of winter sports-themed clay sculptures in 2019. He successfully created the first batch of winter-sport clay sculptures in 2019.

However, the first batch of sculptures were so realistic, which didn't satisfy Xie, so he began wondering how to make them more vivid.

A simple work usually takes Xie three to four days but some complicated works take a week or even half a month. He has finished 12 works so far. Xie said he wants to back up the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics through clay sculpture, inspiring more people to pay attention to the event through traditional Chinese art.