In 1942, her father went to Luoyang, Central China's Henan province, where he found a group of dancing clay figurines in a mountainside cave. He took photos of these nine sculptures of women in various dance poses.

"I was very excited and intrigued when my dad showed me those photos," Wang Qian recalls.

"Clay figurines of entertainers, such as dancers and musical instrument performers, often accompanied the deceased into the afterlife in ancient China. Those statuettes show the history and culture of their times and are highly valuable as cultural relics.

"Dad was also very excited about those clay figurines, which, sadly, were destroyed in war. He told me he wished to make replicas."

So began her career.

"It's like a promise I made to my father," Wang Qian says.

In 2015, she gave up her relaxing retirement and used her savings to rent a house in the countryside of Xi'an to channel her sculpting skills and restoration experience to produce replicas of ceramic dancers.