1. Research on the Origin: The Historical Evolution from “Tang Guang Bean” to Sugar Painting
Sugar painting, as a unique form of traditional Chinese folk handicrafts, can trace its historical origins back to the Tang Dynasty.
According to what is recorded in the literature, at that time, this kind of plastic art that used sugar as a medium was called "Tang Guangdou", and it was mainly popular in folk festivals.
Until the Qing Dynasty, the sugar painting craft reached its peak, and its selection of material carriers had formed a stable paradigm. That is, sweet radish, corn, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and other local crops were used as the base, and maltose was used to boil it. This laid the material foundation for the sugar painting material.
During this period, sugar painting was not only widely circulated as a folk craft, but also because its production process was ornamental and the finished product was artistic, so it gradually differentiated from practical sugar products and became an independent craft category with both folk connotation and aesthetic value.
Scattered records of street sugar painting vendors can already be seen in local documents such as "Chengdu Survey" that appeared during the Qing Dynasty, which confirms their historical fact as an important part of market culture. .
2. The essence of craftsmanship: the improvisational aesthetics of using a copper spoon as a pen
The core skills of sugar painting lie in free-hand casting and the consistent creative paradigm.
有艺人，将铜勺当作笔，把糖浆视为墨，于那光滑得如同美玉的大理石板之上，行云流水样地运着勺，时而提起，时而停顿，时而放下，时而收起，在糖汁倾泻之际，须臾就形成了形状。
The entire process relies on the muscle memory of the heart and hands responding to each other. There is no room for revision of the manuscript at all, showing the supreme state of "heart and hand unity" in traditional Chinese handicrafts.
The syrup turns into an amber fluid state at a temperature of around 160 degrees Celsius. It only takes a few minutes to cool and solidify. The artist has to complete a series of complex processes such as composition, routing, stacking, and edge finishing in this fleeting moment.
The finished items are crystal clear and extremely clean. When viewed against the light, the interior of the candy body reflects a dazzling halo of light, which is generally called "sugar light" among the people. It echoes with the ancient name "tangguangguangbean", thus forming a kind of echo of craftsmanship that spans time and space.
3. Schema Genealogy: Visual Coding of the Twelve Zodiac Signs and Folk Symbols
Sugar paintings have such an image system, which takes the twelve zodiac animals as the core motif. In addition, it also adds insects, fish, flowers and birds, birds and animals, opera characters, and traditional patterns such as auspicious dragons and phoenixes.
These schemas are not made randomly, but are deeply embedded in the time concept and life consciousness of farming civilization. The zodiac corresponds to the earthly branches, which carries the Chinese people’s simple understanding of the cycle of destiny. The dragon, phoenix, turtle and crane symbolize auspiciousness and entrust the folk belief of praying for Najib.
What is particularly special is its consumption form called "turntable picture selection": the customer turns the bamboo arrow, and the artist will cast the corresponding shape according to which pattern the arrow of the bamboo arrow points to.
This random game mechanism makes the process of buying and selling sugar paintings itself into a folk entertainment, which enhances its interactive nature of living inheritance in folk cultural spaces such as temple fairs, festivals, and markets, and becomes a folk entertainment, which strengthens its interactive attributes.
4. Aesthetic connotation: dual coding of decoration and edibleness
The aesthetic value of sugar paintings is reflected in the dialectical unity of materiality and spirituality .
On the one hand, it uses sugar as a medium to retain the original function of food. It will melt with a gentle touch of the tip of the tongue, and the sweet aroma of wheat surrounds the mouth, evoking childhood memories of taste. On the other hand, the subtlety of its shape, the smoothness of its lines, and the changes in light and color make it go beyond the scope of ordinary snacks and become a folk art that can be viewed and played with.
The situation of "edible art" creates the unique aesthetic tension of sugar paintings. The viewer will go back and forth between "cannot bear to eat" and "want to taste the taste"! In this dual experience of both visual pleasure and taste expectations, a comprehensive perception of a folk handicraft can be achieved.
The majestic rooster, the majestic galloping horse, and the agile and flying dragon and phoenix are placed under the shining sunlight, showing a scene of flowing golden light. Those shapes are both animal shapes with concrete images and the rhythm of lines full of abstract meaning, showing the aesthetic pursuit of "between similarity and dissimilarity" in traditional Chinese folk art.
5. The dilemma of inheritance and the contemporary proposition of intangible cultural heritage protection
At the dawn of the 21st century, sugar paintings were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects in 2008. This situation marked the institutional confirmation of its cultural value.
However, industrialized candy has brought impact. The candies produced on the assembly line are colorful, the candies produced on the assembly line are rich in taste, and the candies produced on the assembly line have different shapes. They satisfy modern people's pursuit of diverse tastes and visual spectacles. The "simple sweetness" represented by traditional sugar paintings is gradually marginalized.
The main challenges faced by the inheritance of sugar paintings at present are that, firstly, in terms of skill inheritance, the older generation of sugar painting artists are gradually withering away. Most of the younger generation only regard it as a way to make a living rather than as a career they pursue wholeheartedly. There are fewer and fewer inheritors who have mastered the core point of "freehand casting"; secondly, in terms of living inheritance, the temples that sugar paintings originally relied on Traditional folk activity spaces such as fairs and markets are becoming increasingly limited, and new effective scenarios have not yet been fully developed; thirdly, in terms of value recognition, the public's understanding of sugar paintings mostly only remains in the dimension of "snacks that can be bought on the street", and they do not have a deep understanding of the past information, craftsmanship wisdom and aesthetic value it carries.
6. Activation Path: Contemporary Transformation and Sustainable Development of Traditional Craftsmanship
In order to revitalize sugar painting for the times, it is necessary to explore a multi-dimensional inheritance and development path on the basis of adhering to the core skills.
First of all, at the level of skill inheritance, it is necessary to build a master-apprentice inheritance system with inheritors as the core. At the same time, promote sugar painting to enter vocational schools and incorporate it into intangible cultural heritage research and training programs. With the help of systematic teaching material collection and technique records, we can ensure that core skills will not be lost.
Furthermore, in terms of application scenarios, in addition to traditional festival markets, we can explore the cross-border integration points between sugar paintings and cultural tourism, cultural and creative design, brand co-branding, international cultural exchanges and other fields, so that traditional crafts can smoothly enter places of value in contemporary living spaces.
Thirdly, at the level of value interpretation, this initiative should focus on strengthening academic research, deeply and meticulously exploring the folklore value contained in sugar paintings, its artistic value, as well as multi-dimensional academic value such as food culture history, and relying on authoritative textual research to provide strong support for its cultural dissemination.
Finally, in the field of aesthetic education, through the introduction of intangible cultural heritage into campuses, community workshops, digital museums and other categories, the public, especially young people, can appreciate the artistic charm of sugar paintings at close range, cultivate the cultural identity and aesthetic literacy of the new generation, and make this sweet fragrance travel through time and continue to linger in the depths of national memory.
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