Ivory carvers want craft preserved

The trade in illegally sourced material will be banned by the end of the year, resulting in job losses and the death of ancient expertise, as Yang Wanli reports.

In recent weeks, Weng Zhanxuan has faced a dilemma as he struggled to make a decision between his future and his family's traditional trade; making sets of balls in which several rotatable layers are carved from a single piece of ivory.

The 24-year-old artisan's family has been making the balls for about 200 years, and he is the sixth generation to follow in his forefathers' foot-steps. The layered balls and ivory boats made in Guangzhou, his hometown in Guangdong province, represent the pinnacle of the Southern, or Canton, style of ivory carving in which the motifs are intricate, rich in detail and have elegant engravings as the focal points.