Father turns wood into “real” bugs for daughter in Pu’er

Look at the mantises in the following two pictures, can you tell which picture shows the real mantis?

The answer is the upper one. The two mantises in the lower picture was carved by Fei Yao, an inheritor of woodcarving from Simao District, southwest Yunnan’s Pu'er City. They are so lifelike that many take them as the real.

Fei Yao learned wood carving from his father when he was a teenager. But he started to focus on carving insects because of his daughter who loves insects.

It’s not easy to carve insects. For example, Fei needs to go through countless procedures to make a mantis’s leg. And when it comes to the carving of a beetle’s wing, he has to conduct many experiments before the real carving begins.

It’s his patience, persistence and creative ideas that make the handicrafts better. In April 2021, Fei was recognized as the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage of woodcarving in Simao District.

Source: Pu’er Radio and TV Station; Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi