Master Lu Guangzheng is the leading artist of Dongyang woodcarving. Over the past five decades， he has created brilliant large-sized woodcarvings for important occasions and important venues.

“Su Dongpo Dredges the West Lake” is a five-scene masterpiece he created for Louwailou Restaurant on the West Lake. Mounted on a wall along a spiral staircase at the restaurant， it presents nearly 100 figures as well as carriages， boats， bridges， pavilions， mountains， houses， etc， scenes that portray the dredging project sponsored by Su Dongpo more than 900 years ago.

His works were chosen for Zhejiang Hall at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in the 1970s and he was the champion in a national woodcarving competition for his carved wall hangings， but his most famous work is a sculpture made in 1997 in celebration of the return of Hong Kong to the sovereignty of China. In early 1997， Lu excelled in a preliminary review for creative ideas for a gift woodcarving that Zhejiang Province would present to Hong Kong when the former British colony came back to China. His plan won unanimous approval and appreciation. The 3.5 meter X 2.5 meter standing screen presents a scene of three sailboats coming back to a harbor， with one in the forefront. The screen has been in the reception hall of the government of Hong Kong SAR for more than 10 years. The large sculpture is so loved by people that more than 30，000 duplications have been made， a deed never seen before in the history of Dongyang woodcarving. Master Lu believes it is his most influential artwork in his career.

Since his commencement at 13 as an apprentice， Lu has created over 400 masterpieces. One year after the commencement of his apprentice， his creation “Love for Peace” was exhibited at a national exhibition for young woodcarvers. Later it was presented as a gift to a foreign visitor. In the mid 1970s， he worked with 15 Chinese colleagues in Germany and other northern and western European countries altogether for four years. The work-study experience opened his eyes.

In 1981 he designed a set of twenty-four woodcarvings， each 12 meters in length and 1.2 meters in width， for a restaurant in Singapore. It caused a sensation in the city state. Later he was commissioned to create woodcarving decorations for various foreign venues. The latest foreign commission was a 9m x 3m carving of a Korean Sea God created in 2007. The sculpture is based on a real Korean hero named Jang Bo-go. As a youngster， Jang crossed the sea and joined the army of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He grew up and became a military talent. After learning that many Koreans were sold as slaves to China， he returned to Korea and appealed to the emperor of Korea to appoint him to stop pirates from the slave trading. He succeeded in wiping out pirates and starting trade with China and Japan. The legendary Jang has long since become a sea god in Korea. Master Lu studied all the information on the hero and created a work of art to depict the hero against a backdrop of flourishing harbor and ships. Many Koreans said that the image of the sea god was exactly what they had imagined.

Lu’s 400 sculptures are marked for his originality. The master is best known for his creative ideas to present art. Among his colleagues and peers， he is also reputed for his ingenious solutions that make large-size wooden sculptures possible. Wood is a substance subjected to temperature and humidity and would crack and deform if long exposed to changing temperatures and humidity. Cracking and deformation are a fatal problem that used to prevent artists from creating large-size woodcarvings. Lu came up with a perfect solution. Under this approach， a large-sized sculpture will be divided into several separate units and each will be carved independently. Then an ingenious installation method will be used to put them together seamlessly. The first large-size woodcarving using this approach was created for the Thunder Peak Pagoda in 2003. Eight separate scenes relate the romance between a man and a white snake lady. Each piece measures 7.7 meters in width and 1.4 meters in height. Critics believe this set of woodcarvings signalizes the solution to the cracking and deforming problem. The revolutionary technique has been successfully applied in various large-scale woodcarvings since then.

At present， Master Lu is busy working for the largest ever woodcarving decoration project for The 2008 World Buddhist Conference to be held in Wuxi later this year. It will take 40 railroad cars to ship all the woodcarving components to the Lingshan Palace in Wuxi， a picturesque city on the Lake Taihu in Jiangsu Province. More than 1，500 wood sculptors from 40 woodcarving businesses in Dongyang have taken part in this unprecedented project. The project is more than unprecedented in size. Installation will be a big challenge. The palace is taller than halls in the Forbidden City in Beijing and all its walls are as slick as glass. How can woodcarving pieces be installed onto such walls? Master Lu’s solution is to use steel racks for installation， something unheard of in Dongyang woodcarving.

Even for a master like Lu Guangzheng who has ingenious solutions， one thing in woodcarving has kept harassing him. In fact， the same problem is harassing all the folk arts in the country. It is hard to find young people to master and carry on ancient arts. Lu’s studio has clients all over the world， but Dongyang Woodcarving School where he studied in good old times and which produced three national masters folded last year because it failed to enroll an adequate number of students. But Master Lu has produced a solution. With hard work and lobbying， Guangsha Architecture Academy now offers a 3-year college course for woodcarving design and making. Forty-eight students were enrolled in 2008. Lu Guangzheng is in charge of this course and many national masters will teach there in the capacity of guest professors. They all look forward to nurturing a new generation of masters for the ancient Dongyang woodcarving. □