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About one hundred years ago, Yangzhou's micro-carving master, Yu Xiaoxuan, won two gold medals at two international expos, earning him international recognition.
Descendants of Yu recently donated Yu's last micro-carving work, an ivory cylinder, to the Yangzhou Museum. On the back of this, a donation ceremony was held at the museum on March 18.
"The best outcome for this work is showing Yangzhou's culture to the world," said Ma Xiaoying, great-grandson of Yu.
The cylinder, 8.3 centimeters high and 4.6 centimeters in diameter, has about 157 ancient poems of more than 4,000 Chinese characters engraved on it. Experts speculated that the cylinder was used to place seals.
Yu Xiaoxuan was born in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu province in 1873. In 1915, Yu brought his work to Japan's Taisho Exhibition and America's Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and won two gold medals.
The ivory cylinder created by Yangzhou's micro-carving master, Yu Xiaoxuan. It needs a magnifier to see the ancient poems totaling 4,000 Chinese characters engraved on the ivory. [Photo/yznews.cn]
The ivory plate by Yu Xiaoxuan, collected in Yangzhou Museum, has nearly 1,000 Chinese characters engraved on the upper left side. [Photo/yznews.cn]
