Captured in charcoal

Making traditional portraits is not only a family business, it symbolizes a way of life for old Haikou. Han Cuiqiong is determined to stop it from slipping away in the rush toward modernity, as Raymond Zhou and Huang Yiming find out in Haikou.

In an age when photographs can be taken and zapped around the world in an instant, it seems antiquated to spend hours or days polishing a portrait.

But Han Cuiqiong, 60, never wavers in her evaluation of the unique art form known as charcoal sketching. She has spent 40 years honing it.