After turning her hand at dough modeling professionally, success did not come overnight for Fu and for the first few years her work was not very popular. Her and her husband spent time learning and finding out ways to improve Fu's modeling materials to get the best results and reduce breakages and cracking.

After releasing her second batch of models onto the market, they became more popular than anticipated with demand quickly outgrowing supply.

Spurred on by her success, Fu has since been invited many times by the provincial cultural department to take part in a large variety of exhibitions to display her wonderful works to the public. She has been honored as a visiting professor at many universities to help popularize this cultural heritage among the next generation.

A dough modeling figure less than 2 cm in height created by artist Fu Haiyun. [Photo/Xinhua]