CCS–Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts
Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts covers an area of 5,862 square meters and located on the Fenyang Road. In the main building, there are three exhibition halls: embroidery, sculpture and folk arts, which basically cover the traditional arts and crafts in urgent need of protection in Shanghai. Its appearance is a white building garden house, and is known as the “Little White House”.
It was the first office of the United Nations World Health Organization in the Asia-Pacific region after 1948. In early 1949, the Shanghai branch of China – Soviet Union Friendship Association settled here. In 1963, under the care of Chen Yi, the most outstanding folk arts and crafts artists in Shanghai worked again and passed on their arts and crafts. At the same time, they also established a showroom of arts and crafts.
In addition, today’s China has absorbed a large number of foreign cultures. Western art and design concepts have imperceptible influence on Chinese traditional culture( Chinese Arts and crafts, 2021). Traditional industries pose a huge threat. This threat has caused a lot of loopholes, such as the aging of the traditional craftsmen, how many young people are willing to work in such a weak industry; When the craftsmen live in a society that keeps pace with The Times, whether they still adhere to the old ideas of production and whether they should use traditional techniques to create new concepts of handicrafts to attract the attention of young people; If so, presumably will be the older generation of arts and crafts masters of the new ideas of the suppression, to be criticized.
Traditional arts and crafts is a kind of creative activity of human cultural behavior, it is not only a kind of art, a production process, but also a precious cultural heritage. In this museum, there are also many ivory products on display, which are beautiful and delicate. Moreover, the process of making ivory products is also very complicated. The first thing to do is to polish the ivory, which is usually done with raspgrass (a grass stem with longitudinal lines on the surface) and light leaves (the outer shell of winter bamboo shoots). It is followed by the production of car spin. Finally, it can sculpted.
Author: Liang Duan Yu
But when it comes to obtaining the raw material, ivory (Ivory Trade, 2018), it is often bloody and brutal. The huge profits from ivory smuggling have led many poachers to kill elephants (stop ivory, June 2013). In order to reduce profits and save costs, poachers have no respect for life, and the way they kill elephants is very brutal. The cruelty was unspeakable. In fact, if we are even remotely aware of the bloody process of ivory extraction, we will realize that ivory is not a good thing to keep in our home, or even make into Buddhist pearl. Besides, not to mention the process of making ivory, but to mention the role elephants play in the ecological environment, ivory cannot represent wealth and Buddha nature. Elephants have been called “forest gardeners” and are essential communicators in terms of biological exchange and diversity. So if elephants go extinct, the environment of the earth will be affected to some extent, which will certainly lead to the complex collapse of the ecosystem, so ivory, even if reluctantly obtained, is extremely inappropriate as a Buddhist pearl.
In addition, today’s China has absorbed a large number of foreign cultures. Western art and design concepts have imperceptible influence on Chinese traditional culture. Traditional industries pose a huge threat. This threat has caused a lot of loopholes, such as the aging of the traditional craftsmen, how many young people are willing to work in such a weak industry; When the craftsmen live in a society that keeps pace with The Times, whether they still adhere to the old ideas of production and whether they should use traditional techniques to create new concepts of handicrafts to attract the attention of young people; If so, presumably will be the older generation of arts and crafts masters of the new ideas of the suppression, to be criticized.
As far as I am concerned, I don’t want to see the decline of Chinese traditional process, it is China’s unique art supplies, even the traditional manual art to incorporate new elements, new ideas can be, it is important to get traditional craft techniques cannot be lost, can’t let see now elegant handicraft sometime in the future can only be on display at the museum, like ancient bronze ware, people can only sigh at its exquisite. For ivory products, I think we can use another raw material to sculpted. This practice not only protects elephants and ecological environment, but also carries on the tradition of this craft.
Britannica,Ivory carving. Available at:
Stop Ivory, Stop ivory closes having achieves its goals-ivory prices down and African elephant population stabilized. (June, 2013). Available at:
China Highlights, Chinese Arts and crafts. By Fercility Jiang(Mar. 18, 2021). Available at:
The economist. (2018). How to stop the ivory trade. Available at: