Jiang Xun with his design of Mo Yan's book Gale. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Chen has a family tradition of engraved printing. His grandfather was a woodblock printer in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and opened a family workshop in the town of Hangji in Jiangsu, once a book printing center.

However, during World War II many woodblock printing workshops closed, including Chen's, and later, during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), a call for traditions to be swept away all but put paid to the ancient craft.

Chen says his fathers words "We must pass on the craft" made a great impression on him, so he went back to the trade in the 1980s, and since retiring from Guangling Ancient Books Printing House in 2007 he has continued to train apprentices.

"Over the years I have had about 100 students, but only about a quarter of them are still doing this work. It doesn't pay well, and there are not enough commissions, so they work on and off for some time and eventually do something else."

But Chen says that since the technique was included in UNESCO's human intangible cultural heritage representative list in 2009, things have improved. Seven students study with him, some sent by publishers such as Guangling Ancient Books Printing House, and some, like Zhao, coming independently.

"I aim to teach them everything I know," Chen says. "Only about 20 people in Yangzhou have mastered this skill, so if I don't teach them I am afraid the skill may be lost."

xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn