Pith painting
It began as a necessity - and became an art-form.
Imagine paintings of clearly Chinese landscapes and characters, but created in a more Western realistic style. It's so eye-poppingly colorful that it almost seems three-dimensional - and on closer inspection, it literally is slightly raised where painted.
Now imagine you're a European in the early 1800s, when China seemed an almost impossibly distant, exotic and evocative place but was slowly becoming more accessible as trade opened up. The idea of exporting local art would be so desirable as to be almost irresistible.
The new cultural phenomenon of pith painting soon took a hold of Europe's upper classes. In 1826 Austria's Kaiser Franz bought albums from a British Consul-General. In 1828, an Italian count visited Canton; when he died two years later in what is now Indonesia, he had no fewer than 350 pith paintings in his baggage.
That's why there is now a place dedicated to pith painting in Macclesfield, an unassuming town in northern England. Well, it's one reason – there's a bit more to it than that…
The Silk Road book-ends
In April 2019, Alastair Blackburn was "rattling around" the house in north London that he shared with his wife Xu Wen, known as Wendy. With the kids grown up and moved out, their home seemed suddenly quiet. But reading a local newspaper soon gave these empty-nesters a new focus.
That day, China's then-ambassador to the UK, Lu Xiaoming, had written a piece for London's Evening Standard explaining how the Belt & Road Initiative was the new Silk Road. The piece mentioned the 400-year trading relationship between China and Macclesfield.
That caught Alastair's attention. He had grown up in Macclesfield and knew, as all locals do, of its long association with the silk trade: at one point, it had 70 silk factories employing 30,000 people. Now the ambassador was citing it specifically as the western end of the Silk Road.
As the couple fell into animated discussion, they realized the Silk Road's eastern end was Xi'an - Wendy's home city. Their marriage wasn't just a combination of cultures – their hometowns bookended one of the world's most famous historical routes. The ambassador's article had lit a fire under the couple.
"My wife and I discovered that we were born at opposite ends of the Silk Road"
"He identified Macclesfield and said that its position as the western end of the Silk Road offered opportunities for our two countries to engage in a more productive way," Alastair tells CGTN. "I'll never forget those words."
He took Wendy back to his hometown for a look around. Finding the town center "neglected and empty", the couple threw themselves into helping make more of Macclesfield. They've moved back to the county and created the Silk Road Foundation, a community interest company dedicated to promoting and improving the town.
One early victory came during the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when they helped the local hospital secure personal protective equipment from Wendy's home city of Xi'an. But while that was welcome, they have made a more permanent move by setting up a physical base in the town center – a space that serves multiple functions, and not just as the foundation's office.
"This particular building acts with two objectives," explains Alastair. "Firstly, it is an art gallery – but also as a practical place where students can come and try to copy the style and the complexity of the original pith paintings."
What is pith painting?
If necessity is the mother of invention, it may also be the midwife to creativity. Although paper had been used in China since the Han Dynasty in around 100AD, it remained difficult (and therefore expensive) to make.
"Most of the paintings before the arrival of pith were on imported European paper, which was in short supply and very expensive," explains Alastair. "It was a Chinese invention to use something that was abundant, cheap and created this three-dimensional effect as an alternative to very expensive Western paper."
Unlike paper, which is plant fibres matted together, pith is a simply thin slice of the Tetranapanax papyrifer plant native to southwest China.
"It's actually what we call the pulp, which is in between the bark and the central stem, that is used, taken out of the plant, then rolled and dried to form a very thin medium upon which to paint," says Alastair.
"Its structure, however, is very different to paper. Paper is fibrous; pith paper is honeycombed. And that means that the way that watercolor paint sits is very different. Because the paint doesn't sink into the paper as easily as it does ordinary paper, it sits on top to create a three-dimensional effect."
"Possessions from China were considered exotic and luxurious"
Usually fairly small and encased in albums, pith paintings were also far less fragile to transport than traditional paintings on paper or canvas. Such durability matters because by the early 1800s, growing numbers of Europeans were traveling to an increasingly open China – and looking to take back artistic souvenirs.
So as a paper substitute it's inexpensive, portable and eye-catching. No wonder it caught on.
"Goods from China, whether it might be tea, silver, porcelain furniture or indeed watercolors, were considered exotic and luxury goods in the West," explains Alastair.
"Possessions from China, because it was a country that 99.9 percent of people would never see, were considered exotic and luxurious and their ownership regarded as a statement of status and wealth."
It certainly helped keep costs down if such goods were easily transported among the crates of the newly desirable taste sensation delighting Europe: tea.
"Watercolors were one of those products that were carried in the ships from Canton – Guangzhou, now - to the west, mostly full of tea. Tea was the big commodity of trade between East and West at the time, and these other decorative items were merely on top of the tea clippers to add extra profit to the journey."
Combining cultures
Fashions come and go, and while pith paintings may not have retained the cutting-edge desirability they enjoyed in the early 1800s, they have kept a fascination for some aficionados.
"I first came across paintings nearly 20 years ago," recalls Alastair. "My wife and I used to like to travel around Europe. We came across these curious, obviously Chinese little paintings and it all started."
The cross-cultural couple's eyes were caught by the combination of worlds represented in the paintings - created in China, largely for a European market.
"Chinese painting is more atmospheric. Shapes blur into each other, to create a sense of depth"
"The characters and the landscapes are clearly Chinese, but it is the style that they are portrayed in, which is a very realistic, almost technical style that is very much more akin to the Western style of painting," says Alastair.
"And these paintings provide a nice metaphor for a fusion between Eastern and Western culture that can add and produce something that is neither one or the other, but nevertheless beautiful.
"Chinese painting tends to be more atmospheric," he enthuses. "The colors are softer, more pastel, and the shapes tend to blur into each other to create a sense of either depth or distance."
As for what the paintings depict, Alastair says he has identified plenty of recurring themes – like the people, the trades, the mythology and the flora of contemporary China, particularly "the gardens of Guangzhou, which was set behind the main trading post and was rarely seen by foreigners."
But he also notes that many paintings explain to Westerners how their newly-acquired goods came to them.
"The products that were bought by the West – how they were sourced in China and the process of harvesting the tea, picking the tea, sorting the tea, tasting the tea and eventually selling the tea – was regarded as most interesting for people sat in the West, drinking very expensive, very healthy Chinese tea, to appreciate how it arrived at their table."
Fashions come and go, and while pith paintings may not have retained the cutting-edge desirability they enjoyed in the early 1800s, they have kept a fascination for some aficionados.
"I first came across paintings nearly 20 years ago," recalls Alastair. "My wife and I used to like to travel around Europe. We came across these curious, obviously Chinese little paintings and it all started."
The cross-cultural couple's eyes were caught by the combination of worlds represented in the paintings - created in China, largely for a European market.
"Chinese painting is more atmospheric. Shapes blur into each other, to create a sense of depth"
"The characters and the landscapes are clearly Chinese, but it is the style that they are portrayed in, which is a very realistic, almost technical style that is very much more akin to the Western style of painting," says Alastair.
"And these paintings provide a nice metaphor for a fusion between Eastern and Western culture that can add and produce something that is neither one or the other, but nevertheless beautiful.
"Chinese painting tends to be more atmospheric," he enthuses. "The colors are softer, more pastel, and the shapes tend to blur into each other to create a sense of either depth or distance."
As for what the paintings depict, Alastair says he has identified plenty of recurring themes – like the people, the trades, the mythology and the flora of contemporary China, particularly "the gardens of Guangzhou, which was set behind the main trading post and was rarely seen by foreigners."
But he also notes that many paintings explain to Westerners how their newly-acquired goods came to them.
"The products that were bought by the West – how they were sourced in China and the process of harvesting the tea, picking the tea, sorting the tea, tasting the tea and eventually selling the tea – was regarded as most interesting for people sat in the West, drinking very expensive, very healthy Chinese tea, to appreciate how it arrived at their table."
Bringing people together
While the peak output of pith painting has long passed, it still exists as an art form and medium – often nodding to its most popular period.
"Pith painting is still going on today," says Alastair. "My dear friend Mr. Wang Heng, who is also a passionate collector and patron of The Thirteen Hongs Museum in Guangzhou, introduced me to a very talented young female artist who operates in Guangzhou today, who is using this pith paper to mimic some of the themes and styles of the early 19th century.
"She has also developed her own modern content, but on paper, to create some wonderful pieces of art. I'm particularly struck by her pictures of animals, because she's able to discern almost each individual hair on a cat, for example, to create that three dimensional effect. It's very engaging."
Perhaps not everybody can reach that level of expertise, but visitors to the Silk Road Foundation are encouraged to have a go.
"Around this table, we expect to get kind of messy but have some fun," smiles Alastair. "And in the next room is a base by which we can explore cultural opportunities. By that I mean the things that connect us – sport, music, dance, language."
"We’re 95% the same, separated by only a few cultural aspects"
There are plans to bring Chinese students on exchange trips to Macclesfield, and Alastair has a grander plan to bring together communities along the Silk Road.
"I happen to be a passionate football fan, and I've seen the passion that this game can infuse cultures in a very positive, competitive, but friendly way," he says. "So we plan what I'm calling the Silk Road Cup, whereby under 16-year-olds from various cities along the Silk Road can come together on an annual basis and compete in a friendly way."
For Alastair, it's just another way to bring people together.
"Once cultures start to engage in those activities, they understand just how much we actually share – that actually, we're 95 percent the same, separated only by a few cultural aspects," he says. "And that's really the mission.
"The Silk Road Foundation is there to connect people, because once you connect them, they can start to understand. Once they can understand, they can start to respect. And once they start to respect, they can appreciate."
Reporter & producer – Du Yubin
Cameraman – Steve Ager
Video Editor – Jason Wright
Animation – Omar Abusitta
Shorthand story – Gary Parkinson
Chief Editors – Duncan Hooper & Qian Fang
Executive Producer – Mei Yan
