Shen felt that woodcutting should be developed into a more high-end art. "The one that took me longest to finish is a large Apsaras woodcut made for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," he said. Taking seven months working 12 hours a day, the piece was 54 centimeters high and 84 centimeters in length.

Prices for these large pieces are now between 300,000 and 500,000 yuan, and some art collectors have begun to emerge as buyers instead of only the tourists and locals of the past.

Unlike traditional Chinese or oil painting, which many collectors have developed knowledge about regarding their artistic value, woodcutting is still new. Shen introduced that for a woodcut, the formation of lines and laying of colors are most important.

To identify a good piece, there are many aspects to examine. For those featuring depictions of Apsaras and Bodhisattva, their five sense organs, facial expressions and body gestures are the main points to observe.

Limited derived products

Though Dunhuang culture is widely known, there have been surprisingly few derived products developed, unlike other famous historic sites like the Terracotta Warriors, or the Great Wall. Before the emergence of woodcutting, there were only some cups or scarves bearing local cultural elements on them for visitors to take home.

According to Zhao Ying, a researcher at Dunhuang Academy, derived products of Dunhuang cave culture have always been limited due to the difficulty of replicating the large murals and statues and the intense level of protection that goes into maintaining the fragile treasures.

The art form is also gaining recognition. "Some of those large and complicated works have high artistic value, and meanwhile they are easy to take away and difficult to destroy," Zhao told the Global Times.

However, woodcutting has an innate flaw - the unsustainable use of wood. For Shen's works, depending on the scale of the piece, the general thickness of a woodcut is limited to around 1.5 centimeters.

"This already saves a lot compared to other practitioners, but still, the use of wood can't keep up with the production of the final work, especially with demand growing rapidly," said Shen.

For the sustained development of this art, Shen said he is considering using a more sustainable material to replace wood, for example, stone.

(Global Times)