Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: February 20, 2023 | 
| 中文
Sugar art on display
Most of us in Pakistan can still recall a street hawker selling white candy, called ‘gatta’, stuck to a thick bamboo perched on his shoulder. It was a common sight in most cities, small towns, and villages of Pakistan. For just two or three rupees, the hawker would take a bamboo stick and, with a few twists, sculpt your own mini candy figure for you. He could make you a butterfly, a flower, a huqqah (hubble-bubble), or any other shape that you wished. It was long before the imported concept of lollypop was incorporated into Pakistani children’s treat menu. It has been many years since I last saw a gatta seller, and wonder if the tradition has vanished with time.
A gatta wala
Incidentally, a similar much more sophisticated tradition has been practiced in China for centuries. The Chinese form of art known as sugar painting or Tanghua (糖画) goes back about 400-600 years ago to the time of the Ming dynasty, when sugar animals or figures were used in religious rituals and as a sacrifice for good luck. Sugar art was widely practiced around the time of the spring festival. It goes back about 500 years, and historians of culture trace it to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when families of nobles practiced it widely. This form of art gained more popularity in the Qing Dynasty (1616-1912). It is believed to have originated in the Sichuan province (in southwest China), but this art form gradually gained wider recognition around the country. Its popularity, mostly amongst children for obvious reasons, meant that this art kept getting more and more sophisticated, going on to employ the techniques of Chinese shadow puppetry and Chinese paper cutting.
An artist busy making sugar art
As techniques and tools improved, many new patterns and styles were introduced to the craft, ranging from zodiac animals to cartoon characters. In Tanghua, molten sugar is used as a medium by the artist instead of a brush, pen or a pencil. Many Tanghua artists have carried on this traditional art form as a legacy of their families for generations.
Tanghua mainly falls into two main categories: plane painting and solid painting. While mostly practiced as plane painting which is 2-dimensional, the master craftsmen have also ventured into solid painting, making 3-dimensional objects with sugar and giving it a sculpture-like feel. Just as painting on a canvas, painting with sugar also requires imagination, precision, control and attention to detail. An artist deftly drizzles hot sugar from a bronze ladle onto a flat slab made of marble as an outline of a figure. Sugar must be melted in a pot carefully before the painting begins, and the right consistency is very important. To add more taste to the creation, the artist may add candied orange and plum notes, along with hints of hazelnut and cinnamon in the melting sugar.
Speed at which sugar is drizzled to create sugar sculpture is important
The sugar is ready when it becomes liquid sugar, which can then be used to produce thin threads on the marble. The consistency of the syrup is very important. Artists have used both white and malt sugar for making sculptures, but the golden malt sugar sculptures are more favored by children as well as adults. Holding a golden malt sugar sculpture against the sun, and enjoying the fascinating craftsmanship is an experience. It takes malt a week or so to sprout to 3 to 5 centimeters. The artist has to water it every day, and then crush it before mixing it with sticky rice, corn, or cooked sweet potatoes to get the right consistency.
Smaller spoons are used to drizzle sugar in order to produce intricate patterns such as swirls or zig-zags. Extra sugar must be kept nearby, slowly melting on a gentle fire. Usually, the artisan paints without looking at anything for reference, relying instead on their imagination. For a 3-dimensional object, for example, a flower basket or a dragon head, the artist has to do a round sugar pancake first and then make a smaller sugar circle on the pancake. Later, the artist adds details such as a lifting beam and flowers to the basket, or facial features to the dragon head.
A sugar artist busy in his work
While the thin threads of liquid sugar drizzle onto the marble, a vivid image, like that of a Loong (Chinese dragon), bird, dog, flower basket, insect, fish, or phoenix will take shape. A complex figure can take several minutes to be carved. A wooden stick is used to hold the figure, and a spatula-like tool removes the creation from the surface, fresh and ready to serve. The whole process must be done very swiftly as molten sugar becomes shard very quickly, and there is no room for error. The whole process is quite a sight to behold, and adds to the experience of relishing a Tanghua.
Like Chinese Calligraphy, many of the Tanghua designs are made with a single stroke. That often means having to backtrack on top of a part that has already been drawn. A mistake may mean that an artist will have to reheat the sugar and start all over again. Making the drawings and illustrations in a single stroke requires the artist to think about the image as a whole, and in their mind, design the path that they will draw. It may take an expert Tanghua artist years to master the art.
Many of the tools used today for making sugar sculptures are similar to those used for centuries. To add more joy for the children, many vendors have also introduced a spinning wheel at their stalls where children can spin a wheel with a pin, and whichever figure, image, or symbol the needle stops at, becomes the shape that the artist carves for the child. Each image and symbol have a special meaning, and the symbol the needle lands on tells the child something about his or her luck or fortune.
Children enjoy the sugar art a lot
The special, edible paintings drawn on-site with hot, liquid brown sugar can be appreciated as works of art and eaten as sweet treats. Although sugar painting lost some of its popularity in recent history, the craft still captures the fascination of enough practitioners and patrons to survive the test of time. Recently, the Chinese Government listed sugar painting as a Provincial Non-Material Cultural Heritage, in order to ensure that it is continued to be practiced as a cultural heritage. Having gained much wider recognition since then, sugar art is now once again considered a befitting representation of the wisdom and creative spirit of the Chinese people. Many Tanghua practitioners enjoy celebrity status in China and amongst Chinese communities overseas. The government also provides special culture preservation grants to support Tanghua practitioners and communities, and the public in general also holds Tanghua competitions to support and appreciate this unique edible art of China.
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