Molten iron fireworks shows add sparkle to town in Hebei

Wang De, inheritor of Dashuhua in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, wears sheepskin inside out to protect himself from burning. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Lantern Festival, which fell on Tuesday, two weeks after Lunar New Year, is the busiest time of the year for folk artist Wang De, but it is also the moment when he feels the most proud of his signature craft: creating molten iron fireworks.

Wang, who is a blacksmith by trade and an exponent of the 500-year-old art of Dashuhua, which literally means "creating tree flowers", lives in Yuxian county in the city of Zhangjiakou, North China's Hebei province.

To create molten iron fireworks, scrap iron is melted up to 1,600 C and thrown against a cold wall to create dazzling effects.

Wang De, 55, and his assistants have presented over a dozen performances for villagers and tourists since Feb 6 as part of the events to celebrate Lunar New Year.

This year, the first day of the Spring Festival holiday fell on Feb 5. And his night gigs ended on Wednesday.

It takes four people to do the performance at the Tree Flower Square of Nuanquan town.

Wang is the lead performer, while the other three help him manage the iron furnace.

For a show, Wang, wearing a straw hat and a thick sheepskin coat to protect him from the heat, holds a willow spoon in his hand, walks up to the furnace near the wall, dips the spoon into the furnace, and slings a spoonful of molten iron at the wall. Then there is a burst of sparks from the wall.

Each performance needs about 300 kilograms of molten iron, which he buys from scrap stations.

"I wear the sheepskin coat inside out so it is not easily ignited when the sparks hit it," he says.