Reviving dough art with precision and passion

However, his journey into dough modeling was far from easy, as mastering the skill required extensive practice and repetition.

"I was under immense pressure during my studies in Hebei," Wang recalled. "We would wake up at 7 am and practice until late at night, with little time to rest throughout the day. The training was grueling."

Despite the stress, Wang's perseverance paid off.

"When I finished my figurines, I felt a profound sense of accomplishment and realized that all my hard work hadn't been in vain," Wang said with satisfaction.

To date, Wang has created four notable pieces, among which he is most proud of Huakaifugui, a work that took him nine days to complete.

The crafting process consists of four key steps: kneading the dough, ironing the structure, carving the dough, and painting. Each step is essential to achieving the desired final look of the figurine.

Kneading the dough, the first step, requires meticulous attention to ensure the raw material is both pliable and properly colored. This is followed by boiling the framework, which Wang considers the most arduous stage of dough modeling. "Ensuring the correct head-to-body ratio of the peacocks is a significant challenge for me. Once the iron has cooled, altering the framework becomes almost impossible," Wang explained. "I've had to try three times to get the ratio just right."

The most time-consuming part is crafting the peacock's feathers, which took Wang almost four days to complete — all 86 of them.

Each feather requires about 35 minutes to make, involving the careful rolling of dough into a mold and refining it once it has dried.