Innovation preserves timeless craftsmanship

When you walk into an iron craft studio on Changchun city's Bashu cultural business street, Northeast China's Jilin province, elaborate iron works of art will surround and amaze you.

One such studio belongs to Yang Guangquan, a 50-year-old iron craftsman, who has been following in the footsteps of the elders in his family and learning iron-making skills since childhood. When he was young, he changed his jobs several times, but in 2013, he finally found his passion and decided to open the studio to promote iron crafts in northeast China's Jilin province.

Yang believes that only innovation can make craftsmanship survive in today's world. "The iron works presented to people must be in line with the times and popular forms," he said.