It was in the Lantern Festival of 1983 that Li Xiangman first learned there had been a kind of lantern whose art had been lost for over 50 years. Watching rainbow-colored lanterns, he overheard an 80-year-old man commenting that none of the lanterns was as good as the one in his memory. Li's curiosity was ignited. He learned that the said lantern didn't have any bamboo skeleton inside and that all the patterns were formed by needle holes.

    Li was sleepless that night. Early next morning he knocked at the door of the old man's house. The more he knew about the way the lantern was made, the more determined he became to restore it. The skeleton-less needle-hole lantern was referred to as Tang Lantern. As it cost a lot of time and money to make one, only very rich families cared to have one made for them and then such a lantern could hang in rich houses.

女儿李晓影成为仙居针刺无骨花灯的又一代传人
Li Xiaoying now inherits her father's lantern-making art.

    Li Xiangman lost no time to find those who knew how to make the lantern. He found 12, all in old age. After much persuasion and good-will activities, the 12 elders agreed to try. They racked their memories and tried. After a few months, the Tang Lantern was reborn after its disappearance for more than 50 years.

    Though the archetype was a little bit primitive, Li was overjoyed. He had acquired the preliminaries and knew he could move ahead. He organized a group of amateur lantern makers and invited all artisans to teach them.

    In 1996, Li enrolled 12 graduates from a local senior high school and taught them to make Tang Lanterns. Li devoted himself to developing new patterns and shapes and new designs. Since 1984, Li has developed 27 series of Tang lanterns in 10 categories. He has spent more than 100,000 of his own money on the lantern restoration and making.

李湘满到仙居各地了解“唐灯”的制作工艺
Li Xiangman goes all over the county to salvage the lost art of lantern making.

    Experts say that this Tang lantern is a top-class state treasure. It has won numerous top prizes both at home and abroad. The government has made a documentary on the lanterns. Chinese embassies and consulates all over the world show this documentary to foreign friends and guests. The documentary is sent out as a gift to celebrated cultural and art groups in various countries. The lantern documentary is also distributed to foreign embassies and consulates in China and visiting cultural officials from foreign countries.

    Born into a doctor's family of traditional Chinese medicine in October 1946, Li Xiangman showed his art aptitude in early years. In 1965 he was recommended for admission to Beijing Arts Academy， but his father forced him to study medicine at Zhejiang Medical University. Upon graduation he worked as a doctor in a hospital in Jinhua, Zhejiang for a short while before he went home and worked as a farmer.

仙居针刺无骨花灯在国际、全国各类民间艺术评比中连连获胜
The lantern of the Tang Dynasty has won many international and national top awards.

    After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), he began working for the local cultural center in Potan, his hometown where he finally started his art career. (Translated by David)

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