Fighting drug crimes

Recently, Hu has found a novel way to promote the Fengxiang clay sculptures: by teaming up with police to help their campaign against drug crimes.

Remarkable progress has been achieved in China's fight against narcotics.

In the past five years, 638,000 drug crimes have been cracked, 32,000 drug trafficking gangs have been eliminated, 780,000 suspects have been arrested, and more than 400 tonnes of drugs of various kinds have been seized.

To help with the country's crackdown on drugs, Hu created the ox sculpture.

On Wednesday, police held an anti-drugs promotional activity in Xi'an, with a set of postcards on display.

The postcards were titled "Fighting drugs and eradicating drugs from the root," featuring the image of Hu's clay ox.

Also on the postcards were images of a sitting tiger, a frog, and a monkey on a horse, all traditional depictions of Fengxiang clay sculptures.

"In traditional Chinese culture, the ox is a symbol of hard work and dedication," Hu said. "So I made the sculpture to symbolize the police officers who work hard during the crackdowns on drug crimes."

The sitting tiger implies suppressing the evil and drug traffickers, he said. The image of a monkey on a horse, which means "getting success immediately" in Chinese, is an embodiment of the expectation that the fight against drugs can be successful, Hu added.

The postcards come with bar codes, which can be scanned to follow anti-drugs information on the internet, and watch how the sculptures are made.

With the postcards, police authorities aim to promote anti-drugs awareness "through the power of culture," said Pan Feng, a senior anti-drugs police officer with the public security bureau of Xi'an.

"We hope to create a safe environment with the help of Fengxiang clay sculptures in our campaign," Pan said.

Pan said they plan to include more art forms in their campaign, and create more of quality anti-drug cultural content in the future.