Painting snuff bottles was one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable experiences I’ve had in China. Many of the excursions and activities I have been able to do through TBC are very famous, like the Forbidden City or the Summer Palace, so I have known what to expect and to be excited for. Painting snuff bottles and biking in the Hutongs was different though, as I have never learned about these things in school in America. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I figured I wouldn’t be very good at painting a snuff bottle. While I wasn’t completely wrong about that, it was still an incredible experience, a unique way to learn more about lesser-known Chinese traditions, and a highlight of my time in China.
The first part of the day we spent painting snuff bottles in an artist’s house in the hutongs. Her name was Li Jing (李静), and she is a very famous snuff bottle painter and the fourth generation of painters in her family. She explained how very few people continue to paint snuff bottles today because it is very tedious and difficult to master. She is one of the few artists keeping this tradition alive today. She has taught Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Gore, and many other Americans how to paint these tiny bottles, and it was clear she was an expert.
The bottles range in size, but most are only a few inches tall and can fit in the palm of your hand. On top of this, unlike most other forms of painting, you must paint the bottle from the inside out. This means you must use these tiny thin brushes where the bristles are half a centimeter long and stick out at a 90-degree angle. From there you dip the brush in paint and thread it through the top of the bottle and paint the sides from the inside. It is quite difficult to paint from the inside as a beginner because you never know exactly where your brush is, and the more you paint, the less you can see. This process means that there can be a lot of accidental paint marks on the lip of the bottle and in places you don’t want (in my case that meant A LOT), but luckily you can use a thin metal wire with bits of a cotton swab wrapped around the end of it dipped in water to erase your mistakes. The way Li Jing painted made it seem effortless. She always knew where the brush was, and every brush stroke left its intended mark. Her works were beautiful, colorful, and extremely detailed, and while I certainly enjoyed painting, I expectedly did not have the same success.
Luckily when we were given the opportunity to paint a bottle, the outline of a lily flower was already made on the inside. This meant we just needed to fill in the lines with our desired colors, but even this was a challenge. We all did better than I thought we would, and we all came out with pretty looking lily pads. The other side of the bottle was left blank, so we could freestyle with our design. I painted a bird swooping down into the water where lily pad was, and although the bird kind of looks like an orange disfigured man, it still came out pretty good. We all left with our own snuff bottles and the whole experience was incredible, as it’s not often you get to take part in a tradition that is hundreds of years old.
After this we biked around the nearby hutongs. The weather was great, and we were able see many important spots within the hutongs. We stopped and walked through Wudaoying hutong, a very popular hutong with many tourists, restaurants, and little souvenir shops. We saw the drum tower and the bell tower, two massive buildings with traditional Chinese architecture within the middle of the hutongs. These two stand out from the surrounding hutongs as they are so large and colorful. We stopped by the Lama Temple before returning to school with our snuff bottles. It was such an amazing way to spend the day, seeing so many dense and historical buildings and participating in such an interesting and historical art form.
By Fall 2024 student Thomas Helm
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