Industry Status: Cluster Expansion, Full Chain Synergy
Currently, the carving industry in Quyang has developed into a "comprehensive, enterprise-intensive, talent-rich, and market-wide" cluster, presenting a thriving and promising development trend. As of 2024, the county has over 2,300 various carving enterprises and workshops, including enterprises, covering 9 townships, with direct employment of over 120,000 people and indirectly driving the employment of tens of thousands of people in surrounding counties and cities. It has become a core industry that drives employment and promotes economic growth. The industry categories have continuously expanded, from a single stone carving to wood carving, copper carving, stainless steel carving, clay sculpture, jade carving, shadow carving, etc., covering 17 categories, including ancient-style, traditional, Western, and abstract art styles, with over 3,500 product varieties, forming an "industry pattern of the world's carvings, with the most comprehensive in Quyang" layout. The industrial layout has been continuously optimized, establishing a development pattern of "one city, one line, three districts" (Eastern Stone Carving City, along the Quxin Road, and three industrial zones in Yangping, Wende, and Dangcheng), with the Quyang Sculpture Cultural Industry Park as the core. This park, as the only national-level cultural industry experimental park in Hebei Province, has been upgraded to a national-level cultural industry demonstration park, integrating resources from design, production, sales, and exhibition of the entire industrial chain, promoting industrial agglomeration development. The industrial benefits have steadily increased. In 2024, the cluster's annual output value exceeded 10 billion yuan, with products exported to over 100 countries and regions. It holds a dominant position in specialized fields such as white marble carving, rail fence carving, and urban landscape garden sculptures, with urban landscape garden sculptures accounting for nearly 60% of the national market share.
Human Resources Support: Master Guidance and Empowerment, Craftsmanship Passed Down Through Generations
Human resources are the core competitiveness of industrial development. Currently, the county has 5 national-level master craftsmen, 49 provincial-level master craftsmen, 46 municipal-level master craftsmen, 6 national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritors, 14 provincial-level intangible cultural heritage inheritors, over 20 master studios, and a large number of high-end sculpture art talents ranking first in the country. The government of Quyang County. Master craftsmen such as Lu Jinqiao, Chen Wenzeng, Wang Shuchang, Liu Tongbao, and Liu Hongli have been deeply engaged in sculpture art for decades. They not only adhere to the essence of traditional techniques but also are courageous in innovating artistic styles, creating a large number of high-quality works that combine artistic value with contemporary characteristics, leading Quyang sculpture art to continuously reach new heights. The government of Quyang County has also established a three-dimensional talent cultivation system of "college education and training + master apprenticeship + skills training", founded the only sculpture major school in the country, organized 28 sculpture enterprises to establish a sculpture industry innovation alliance with eight major art academies such as the Central Academy of Fine Arts, established master art studios and sculpture creative design research institutes, and continuously cultivate young sculpture talents, injecting fresh blood into the sustainable development of the industry. Generations of Quyang sculpture artisans have adhered to craftsmanship and devoted themselves to research, integrating traditional techniques with modern aesthetics, allowing the thousand-year-old sculpture technique to innovate and develop in the process of inheritance, becoming the core competitiveness of the Quyang sculpture cluster.
Innovation and Upgrading: Technology Empowers Transformation, Expanding Development Space
Facing the opportunities and challenges of the new era, the Quyang carving industry cluster adheres to "upholding tradition while innovating", promoting the deep integration of traditional craftsmanship with modern technology, accelerating digital and intelligent transformation, and resolving the bottlenecks in traditional industry development. In recent years, Quyang carving enterprises have actively introduced advanced equipment such as CNC engraving machines, 3D scanners, laser engraving equipment, and robot engraving machines. CNC equipment can replace 70%-80% of manual labor, significantly improving production efficiency, reducing production costs, and enhancing product precision, achieving "traditional craftsmanship, technology empowerment". In terms of product innovation, Quyang carving has broken away from the limitations of traditional single materials and colors, integrating new technologies such as 3D printing and AI design, developing diversified products such as colored sculptures, cultural products, and home decoration items, promoting the transformation of products from "crafts" to "consumer goods", and meeting diversified market demands. At the same time, the pace of industry cross-border integration has accelerated, promoting the deep integration of the carving industry with cultural tourism, education and research, and digital economy, creating a new tourism and cultural integration business model that integrates creation, display, experience, and sales, restarting the Quyang carving (Zhencai) festival, establishing 222 heritage workshops, ranking first in the province in terms of quantity, driving the employment of 16,000 rural residents, and expanding the development space of the industry. Standardization construction continues to advance. The provincial local standard "Quyang Stone Carving Process Regulations" has been officially released and implemented, unifying technical indicators and solidifying process specifications, improving product quality stability and consistency, and enhancing the core competitiveness of the industry.
