A temple fair where culture is center stage

Yu Wansen, a representative inheritor, says that his team has been attending different kinds of intangible cultural markets around the country, but this was his first temple fair.

"We attended more than 10 events last year, but this temple fair turned out to be bigger, more crowded, and more vibrant than other markets," Yu says.

Spring Festival was a particularly busy period for Yu and his team, and they didn't sleep on Chinese New Year's Eve, as they were busy preparing the stall. Their efforts paid off as revenues exceeded 50,000 yuan ($6,860) on the first day.

"The temple fair is strict with food safety and quality. The organizers required us to have specific qualifications, and even before we arrived, they had been sending us all sorts of detailed guidelines about product quality standards," he says.

There was a range of intangible cultural heritage handicrafts on sale, which both added to the experience and made good souvenirs. One traditional Beijing children's toy is the tu'er ye, a clay statuette depicting the rabbit god.

Zhang Zhongqiang, a practitioner of Beijing's painted clay sculpture art, brought a range of his crafts to the fair to ring in the New Year.

Rabbit figurines were traditionally based on the rabbit companion of the goddess Chang'e, and hence associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, but they are now more than a seasonal cultural symbol, according to Zhang.

"I created a limited edition for the Year of the Snake, with a snake winding around the base, along with propitious imagery such as osmanthus flowers and goldfish. On the front bottom of the figurine, I've written the character fu (good fortune), a traditional Chinese New Year wish," Zhang says.

He hopes that his blending of the zodiac and New Year in the figurines will bring people the joy, festivity, and renewed appeal of traditional Chinese culture.

"Tu'er ye has now expanded its influence beyond Beijing, and even China, to have an international appeal, as many visitors from abroad buy my work as souvenirs," he adds.

The 62-year-old artisan, born and raised in Beijing, says that today's temple fairs feature myriad traditional items and toys. Apart from tu'er ye, kongzhu (diabolo) and Chinese pinwheels are also popular purchases.