Seventy-six-year-old Sun Youxiang is the local zaohua (oven flower) painter in Datuan Village and it seems everyone who isn't cooking with gas and electricity wants him to spruce up their wood-burning ovens. These are often large affairs built into the wall, with lots of space for decoration for the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 14 next year.
It's a lunar new year's tradition in many suburban villages to clean and brighten up the house and to paint fresh zaohua for good luck.
But another date requiring zaohua is coming up.
In the Chinese lunar calendar, January 24 is the day to worship the God of the Oven who protects a family and provides food. On the evening of January 23, painting new zaohua is a ritual to welcome the deity.
But Sun is already painting.
"It's the busiest time of the year for me," says Sun, a Nanhui native who paints free hand. He is a retired primary school art teacher and does this for pleasure.
In rural areas many homes used to have big ovens that heated the room. They were usually made of clay or brick; today some are covered with tiles.
Zaohua is considered a piece of Shanghai's intangible cultural heritage.
It originated in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) when bricklayers and masons decorated the ovens they built, as a blessing for the home.
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