Joining ingenuity with culture

Craftsman honored by Forbes China for transforming traditional architectural techniques into a phenomenon, Yang Feiyue reports.

In the worst of times, Liu Wenhui couldn't afford the delivery fee for a package six years ago. Now, he stands proudly as one of Forbes China's top 100 outstanding craftsmen of 2024, having transformed his passion for ancient Chinese architecture into a cultural phenomenon.

In a spacious plant based in Hangzhou, the capital of East China's Zhejiang province, the air hums with saws and smells of fresh wood. Workers meticulously craft ancient-looking building components like dougong (interlocking wooden brackets). Each person has a specific role — selecting wood, making components, sanding, polishing, and assembling the mortise-and-tenon joints.

"We are busy producing a new array of mortise-and-tenon building blocks," says the man in his 40s.