At the China Arts and Crafts Exhibition that lasted from January 10 to February 10, 2009 in Beijing-based China Art Gallery, Children are the Teacher’s Life, a boxwood carving by Zhejiang artist Zheng Shengning, was an eye-catching centerpiece especially promoted by the organizing committee of the exhibition.
　　Experts and audiences were deeply impressed by the carving. In fact, this sculpture had won a gold award at the 9th China Arts and Crafts Masters’ Artworks Exhibition held shortly before this exhibition.
　　“Children are the Teacher’s Life” is a sculpture in memory of the heroic deeds of numerous teachers at the moment of the monster earthquake that shook Sichuan on May 12, 2008. Like many artists who were inspired by the heroes of the quake, Zheng Shengning wanted to depict teachers some of whom died in order to rush children to safety. The images in his mind were so vivid that he wasted no time making a sketch and starting to translate the sketch into a sculpture. The sculpture depicts a mid-aged teacher carrying two children in his hands and rushing to safety. The boy in the sculpture is snatched up from his nap and he didn’t have time to put on his pants completely.
　　The theme is not the only winning element of the sculpture. It is carved on a piece of 1,000-year-old boxwood. Zheng Shengning applied a wide range of skills to make the sculpture. His understanding of the art of sculpture, his carving mastery, and his emotions all went into the sculpture.
　　It was not the first top national honor Zheng Shengning won. He won his first national gold award in 1991 at Liu Kaiqu Root Art Exhibition. Since then he has won many more top honors and his boxwood sculptures have been displayed in Japan, America and Canada. Some of his masterpieces have been selected as state gifts for foreign VIPs. In 1996, he was granted China Arts and Crafts Master by UNESCO and China Association of Folk Artists. In 1999 he was elected president of Zhejiang Association of Root Arts.
　　With a 50-year career behind him, Zheng Shengning has dedicated himself to depicting cultural figures as well as ordinary people in everyday life. He has created a series of boxwood sculptures of craftsmen such as a carpenter, a knife-sharpening craftsman and a shoe repairer. Unlike some peers, Zheng Shengning focuses upon people of today. Traditional themes focus on monks, Buddhist gods, scholars, ladies as well as some fishermen and woodcutters. Such figures are too conventional. Zheng brings modern images and present-day life into boxwood sculpture, which gives him an opportunity to perfectly highlight lyrical rhythm, personality and idiosyncratic expression.
　　As a root sculptor, Zheng Shengning has an amazing capability of turning seemingly useless roots into prize-winning root-carving masterpieces.
　　Zhong Kui the Ghost Buster, a masterpiece of Zheng Shengning, is carved on a piece of pine tree lump. Zheng spotted it in a heap of useless materials at a crafts factory. The original design was to carve it into a pumpkin, but the surface was utterly rotten and potted with worm holes. That was why it was thrown into the waste heap. Zheng Shengning was interested. He examined the piece for a long while and thought it was probably useful. The biggest feature of the piece was that it had a very unique wood texture on the surface. The lines on the surface looked complicated but presented no chaos at all. Some lines were very expressive. The master considered it ideal for making the image of Zhong Kui. With Zheng’s magic touches, the useless lump became a masterpiece.
　　
　　One day he spotted a similar useless camphor root in a vegetable garden while visiting a friend at a Buddhist temple in Hangzhou. The root was deserted carelessly there. It was covered by dirt and many holes formed by the bites of insects. He picked it up and washed it in a stream. After the dirt was washed, he closely examined the piece and found it was an ideal piece for a sculpture.
　　One day he spotted a similar useless camphor roots in a vegetable garden while visiting a friend at a Buddhist temple in Hangzhou. The root was deserted carelessly there. It was covered by dirt and many holes formed by the bites of insects. He picked it up and washed it in a stream. After the dirt was washed, he closely examined the piece and found it was an ideal piece for a sculpture.
　　He turned the piece into an image of Qu Yuan, one of the greatest poets of China who killed himself in exile after learning that the capital of his kingdom fell to the invading army of the Qin. The man of poetry and loyalty is Zheng’s favorite. □