50 years of experience marks couple as masters of Taiping dough sculpture

Over the past 50 years, Liang Qiuye and her husband, Zhang Jianzhong, have created more than 15,000 Taiping dough sculpture artworks, receiving many awards in competitions both at home and abroad.

Since childhood, Liang, 74, a folk artist in Xiangfen county, North China's Shanxi province, has showed great interest in handcrafts, such as paper-cutting and clay sculptures.

She began to learn how to make Taiping dough sculptures from her grandmother and aunt about 60 years ago.

Now she and her 77-year-old husband have become inheritors of the provincial-level intangible cultural heritage.

Taiping dough sculpture, also known as huamo in Chinese, is a kind of decorated steamed bun, usually in the shape of various flowers and animals.

Local residents have a traditional custom of making huamo at traditional Chinese festivals to pray for good wishes.