Employees of Tangdu Varnished Lacquer Ware Co making varnished lacquer screens, in PIngyao, Shanxi province, on Sept 25 [Photo/pyonline.net]

An employee of Tangdu Varnished Lacquer Ware Co making images on the varnished lacquer ware, in PIngyao, Shanxi province, on Sept 25 [Photo/pyonline.net]

The varnished lacquer ware of the city of Pingyao, Shanxi province goes back as far as the 8th century, during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) at a time when the businesses were separate as small-scale private workshops. There were hundreds of these workshops making their own lacquer wares which was sold in the workshop.

An employee of Tangdu Varnished Lacquer Ware Co making images on the varnished lacquer ware, in PIngyao, Shanxi province, on Sept 25 [Photo/pyonline.net]

Over time, these individual artists gradually fell apart, but now, the county government has made efforts to maintain the arts of varnished lacquer, adding some modern art designs and concepts and creating a Lacquer Culture Park that brings together research, design, production, sales, and tourism to improve its resources and efficiency. And the industry has regained some vitality in recent years, thanks to a strategy, and, by 2013, sales of the artwork were above 20 million yuan ($3.3 million), marking its successful preservation.