Century-old Art Meets Expo Second Time
By admin on 2015-01-15

Are these grapes tempting? Do you want to put one in your mouth to taste?

The Empress Dowager Cixi, who was in power during the Qing Dynasty in China, had such thoughts when seeing these grapes for the first time on a winter day a hundred years ago before realizing that the grapes she saw could only be looked at because they were made of glass. Surprised and pleased, the Empress endowed a plaque to the producers of the glass grapes, the Chang family. For some time, glass grapes known as “Grape Chang” rose to fame in Beijing.

Strings of crystal clear glass grapes brought prosperity to the Chang family. When glass grapes were passed down to the third generation, the family was gradually becoming well-off. But, the five grandchildren became profligate sons of the rich.

As the family business was facing ruin, the Changs decided to pass on the glass grape-producing skills to daughters rather than sons, making it a new family rule. Today, the fifth-generation successors of the glass grape business are the sisters Chang Yan and Chang Hong.

“The reason my sister and I make glass grapes is to make this art pass on,” said Chang Hong “We don’t make a living from it. So different from what the family rule stipulated, we do not only impart the techniques to our own daughters.”

The grapes are made from blown glass, with stems made of thin iron wires, leaves molded from rice paper on repression and curly vines made of paper rope.

Despite the simple raw materials, the glass grape-making process is complicated and demands the experience of artists. The size of glass grapes for blowing depends on the different grape varieties to be made. The pigment is not only used to color the beads, leaves and stems but also to keep the colors from running.

Each grape bead needs to be colored more than three times. After the colored grapes dry, a thin layer of wax is coated onto the grapes.

“Glass grapes are characterized by their close similarity to the appearance of genuine grapes, with frost hanging on the surface,” said Chang Hong.

The frost dipping skill is also Chang Hong’s expertise, which makes the glass grapes look like ones just picked from the grape trellis.

After frost dipping, the scattered beads, leaves, stems and vines are assembled together to complete the grape bunch.

In 1915, the Chang family’s stunning grapes debuted at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. After nearly a century, the Chang grapes make a second appearance at the Shanghai World Expo..

"At the Expo in Shanghai,” said Chang Hong, “everyone who sees my grapes could not help but to ask, ‘is it real or fake?’ And everyone wants to reach out and touch it."