The master
Lin Ching Wan
連青雲 · 中國玉石雕刻大師
Lin Ching Wan is a China Master of Jade Carving and a National First-Class Senior Technician. He began his training in 1973 under the Hong Kong master carver 張北水, and in 1989 founded his own jade-carving studio in Shenzhen.
Over more than fifty years at the bench he has become known for colour-led carving — qiaose — in which each design grows from the natural colour bands of the stone rather than being imposed on it. A streak of green becomes a sash; a skin of red becomes a flame.
He also developed his own mortise-inlay technique. Drawing on the joinery of traditional Chinese furniture, it joins separate pieces of jadeite so closely that they read as a single stone, without a visible seam — allowing red, green and lavender to meet in one figure.
His works are held by collectors in China and abroad. Xinshang Jade, the family house he founded, presents his sculpture and jewellery today.
“Follow the stone’s own colour, and let it speak for itself.”
Two signatures
Colour-led carving · 俏色
The design follows the stone’s natural colour zones, so that every colour has a part to play.
Mortise inlay · 榫口鑲嵌
Separate jades are joined as one, without a seam — a technique of the master’s own.