Replicating the past: father-daughter team’s school project using leftover clay to produce mask resembling 3,000-year-old artefact goes viral in China
- The Sanxingdui archaeological site in Sichuan province has become one of the most important Chinese sites of the past decades
- The father-daughter duo decided to make a copy of a famous bronze mask as they spent more time at home because of Covid-19
A father-daughter art project in which the two built remarkable clay replicas of 3,000-year-old bronze artefacts from Sanxingdui in southwest China drew over three million views on Weibo since it was published on Sunday.
The girl, a primary 4 student, had initially asked for her mother’s help to finish the project. But the 41-year-old mother surnamed Zhao told Wutong video, a news platform in mainland China, that she “had no idea how to finish the assignment”.
“I asked her father for help and he said, ‘the square ding should be simple to make with boxes’.”
“My daughter found the patterns online, and, because the patterns on the left and right sides [of the ding] are relatively simple, she kneaded it with clay herself, while her father kneaded the Sanxingdui mask pattern on the front of the ding,” Zhao said.
However, building the mask became more than homework, but rather a way to spend time together as the family spent most of their time at home in Nanjing, the capital of eastern China’s Jiangsu province, as the city tries to prevent a Covid-19 outbreak. The province reported seven asymptomatic cases on Monday.