Arts and crafts fair kicks off

Gokhan Bukmus (in white shirt) explains to a visitor the meaning of the patterns of the coffee grounds in her cup. Lin Lin

The 11th Shenzhen Arts and Crafts Fair kicked off Thursday at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District.

The fair, which will last through Sunday, offers a rich variety of art pieces and handicrafts such as embroideries, wood carvings, tin vessels, copper sculptures, silver handicrafts and porcelains.

This year’s fair has attracted 251 exhibitors from 25 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions from around the country, such as Qinghai, Gansu, Yangzhou, Hangzhou and Jingdezhen.

At the Qinghai pavilion, visitors can find local handicrafts such as thangka paintings, gilt silver and copper vessels, peach blossom stones and Kunlun jades.

He Man, who came along with the Qinghai exhibitors, is a master in crafting gilt silver and copper vessels. He has brought some of his best works to the fair.

“An important feature of traditional gilt is that the color can be preserved for a long time, even for hundreds of years. Some of the vessels we make are for religious use, such as prayer wheels, and some are for daily use, such as teapots and wine vessels,” said He.

Visitors can also find Shenzhen’s exhibitors at the fair, such as the Dafen Oil Painting Village and the Silk Park of China from Longgang Districts.

According to Qian Huimin from the Dafen Oil Painting Village, they’re presenting 20 ink paintings and oil paintings originally created by artists of the village, and the works cover a wide range of topics and themes.

In addition to traditional Chinese handicrafts, visitors can also experience Turkish coffee culture at the stand of Gokhan Bukmus, who comes from Turkey and has been staying in China for 18 years.

Bukmus offers fortune-telling services along with brewed coffee at the fair. He said that fortune-telling is a part of the Turkish coffee culture, and he considers the fair a good chance to promote both his home culture and his business.

“Turkish coffee is the only coffee in the world which is not filtered. We brew and we serve with the grounds. When you finish drinking, there will be some coffee powder left at the bottom. Then you turn the cup upside down, and wait for a while. When you take up the cup, there will be small patterns in the cup, and each pattern has a meaning. This is a tradition in Turkey,” said Bukmus.

Other featured activities at the fair include a paper-cutting workshop, a kite-making workshop, a weaving workshop, and a shadow puppet workshop, all of which allow the visitors to experience the crafts.