Traditional ship skills kept afloat by passion of artisan

Zhang Guohui has been making ships, from vessels in excess of 30 meters, to model boats, for more than six decades.

"Every minute, I think about how to make it perfect," says the 77-year-old, an inheritor of the watertight-bulkhead technology of Chinese junk boats.

Hailing from a poor family in a fishing town in East China's Fujian province, Zhang started to make a living by fishing on the open seas when he was only 16, which is where he developed a keen interest in making boats.

Being a fast learner, Zhang was later sent to shipyards in the cities of Quanzhou and Xiamen of Fujian where he received training and became a master of building traditional Chinese junks and gained fame because of his consummate craftsmanship.

Due to the development of the modern shipbuilding industry, the need for large wooden vessels decreased sharply. Zhang began constructing model ships using his 20 years of shipbuilding experience.

"I had feared that the traditional skills would die someday. Fortunately, in 2007, I met Wang Lianmao, the former curator of Quanzhou Maritime Museum," says Zhang.

After their meeting, he started to renovate old ships and make models for the museum.

In 2010, the watertight-bulkhead technology of Chinese junks was inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding by UNESCO.

Invented in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and widely adopted after the Song Dynasty (960-1279) in Fujian, the technique permits the construction of oceangoing vessels with watertight compartments. If one or two cabins are accidentally damaged in the navigation process, seawater will not flood the other cabins and the vessel will remain afloat.

Thanks to dedicated craftsmen like Zhang, the boatbuilding method can be inherited and promoted.

"The renovated ancient ships are the historical witnesses of Quanzhou as a maritime hub of the East and Southeast Asia trade network," says Zhang, who has built and renovated more than 20 model ships for the museum.

"Every time I see my works in the museum, I feel excited," he says, adding that it is meaningful for the younger generations who can learn from exhibitions of those ancient ships that their ancestors had advanced shipbuilding technology at an early stage.

In 2016, Zhang was appointed as an ancient model ship researcher at the museum and was invited to deliver lectures to university students.

"Students are intrigued by the craftsmanship of shipbuilding, and many of them even came to my workshop to learn about boatbuilding during holidays. As long as I'm alive, I'll keep passing on my knowledge," Zhang says.