2006 With Han Gang, we met with Chen Xingcai’s eldest grandson Chen Gang, who was

working as a print apprentice at the time. In addition to carving, printing, and painting

works, Chen Gang was responsible for greeting visitors, taking them on extended tours of

the studio, and for selling works (fig. 50).

Among the many narratives Chen relayed to us, I will include here his discussion

of the Bicycle-riding Maiden 􀰎􀓚􀵢􀭯, a well-known image in the Chen family

repertoire of prints (fig. 69). The topic of the Bicycle-riding Maiden arose when Chen

Gang guided us into the carving area where various tools, half-carved woodblocks, and

print samples were spread around the tables. One of the half-carved blocks on the table

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depicted the outline of the Bicycle-riding Maiden. As Chen was explaining the process of

carving, he picked up this block and pointed to the chiseled marks on the block as an

example of “yang carving,” 􁀝􀥙, where the negative space is carved away to leave the

lines protruding out of the block (fig. 51). I then asked Chen if he knew the history of the

image. Here is my translation of his full response, with a record of his gestures in

brackets:

I’ve been making this print for many years now. I believe it is quite old, from

several generations ago. Back in those days, the print designers [􀟂􀴽] imagined

this kind of bicycle for riding and made a picture of it. The handlebars of the

bicycle looks like this. [Points to carved outline on the block.] The artisans from

the past imagined it like this since there weren’t even bicycles back then. Take a

look at what they came up with! [Holds up the block.] They were rural people and

they gave the bicycle a dragon’s head. They completely imagined this. Take a

look at these steel wires; they are all twisty and curvy. [Traces the lines with his

fingers.] I heard all of this from the others. In any case, a master print designer

from the past drew this image according to his imagination, this Bicycle-riding

Maiden [Adds emphasis on the title of the work.] It is even quite famous now. We

all call it the Bicycle-riding Maiden. There are some things that represent

Mianzhu, such as “double-bang firecrackers” [􀶠􀑇]. This print is a representative

work, as it is more famous than the others.242

In this short narrative, Chen Gang explains how rural designers of the past

imagined the fanciful details of the bicycle. To confirm his interpretation, he points to the

auspicious dragonhead and curved wires, repeatedly asking us “to look” and see for

ourselves. These visual markers serve as mnemonic cues for his narrative as well as the

concrete evidence confirming his narrative for his audience. Chen’s narrative can be

242 Chen Gang, in interview with the author, Mianzhu, Sichuan, July 2006.

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traced to an interpretation of the print that has been published in folk art research and in

the media, which often repeat this detail that the print designer’s depiction of the bicycle

was based on imagination or hearsay rather than direct observation of an actual bicycle.

However, it is significant that Chen assigns oral origins to the narrative and not written

ones: “I heard all of this from the others.” This simple statement conveys Chen’s selfaware

position as both a receiver and giver of orally transmitted knowledge. While he

does not explicitly state who “the others” are, he is most likely referring to the other

members of the Chen workshop.243 In recognizing the other voices that have shaped and

authorized his telling, Chen performs his own role within an established community of

nianhua makers and speakers.

Chen’s embodied telling takes places in the performative present, recreating the

meaning of the work in his own words and gestures. Caressing the block, Chen

immediately establishes his own personal relationship to it: “I’ve been making this print

for many years now.” This casual opening supports his authority to speak and firmly

locates the print within the Chen family print tradition. He then establishes the age of the

print as being “quite old” and of rural origins, two highly valued features in the folk art

industry as discussed in the introduction of this study. Chen’s gestures and expert

handling of the block are essential forms of non-verbal communication that perform the

value of the block as well as his own embodied skills as a trained apprentice, attesting to

what narratologists have termed “narrative competence,” the acquisition of skills to both

receive and transmit narratives within a social and cultural context.244 Instead of situating

Chen’s story as derivative of folk art publications, it is important to recognize his

243 Later in the conversation, we are told that he has never visited the museum.

244 Emma Kafalenos, Narrative Causalities (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2006), 2.

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embodied telling as a strategic creation in its own right, for the purposes of supporting the

family business. Anthropologist Johannes Fabian reminds ethnographers that talk about

culture “is itself a cultural practice, a rhetorical strategy, and that this is also the case with

(talk about) popular culture.”245

As an experienced speaker in this setting, Chen kept his audience in mind as he

selected specific details to share about the woodblock. As academic researchers and

potential buyers, Han Gang and myself could play a role in boosting the fame and status

of the workshop through our writings, photographs, and purchased works. These factors

may have influenced his decision to focus on the work’s historical value and rural

origins. It is likely that he would take a different approach for another audience. In

keeping in mind the co-creative relationships of narrators and audiences, these interviews

must be approached as delicate inter-subjective exchanges rather than direct

transmissions of cultural knowledge from one individual to another.

There are many historical precedents for such innovative storytelling approaches