During the winter holiday, Arhin William, a Ghanaian international student, made a special trip to the museum to visit the exhibition on Hongshan Culture. The exquisite artifacts sparked his deep interest in this ancient civilization. One afternoon, he invited two of his fellow international students from South Korea and Thailand to an intangible cultural heritage studio to learn how to use chocolate sculpting techniques to create the classic Hongshan Culture artifact—Jade Pig-Shaped Dragon.

At the Shenyang Li’s Sugar Figurine Studio, Li Fengyan, the representative inheritor, was melting chocolate blocks into the silky syrup in a small pot. She aimed to combine traditional Italian chocolate-making techniques with Shenyang Li’s sugar figurine craftsmanship to recreate the jade pig-shaped dragon.

Li Fengyan first introduced the characteristics of the representative artifacts of Hongshan Culture to the international students. Then, she distributed pictures of the jade pig-shaped dragon to each student and guided them on how to pour chocolate syrup according to the outline of the artifact. After the syrup solidified, they used bamboo sticks to carve out the details.

The three young men were fully engaged in their creation. One chose to make the jade pig-shaped dragon in natural chocolate color, while the others chose jade green chocolate syrup for creation. Under Li Fengyan’s guidance, the outline of the jade pig-shaped dragons gradually became clear, and finally they were perfectly presented before everyone’s eyes.

Arhin William and his classmates carefully held the chocolate jade pig-shaped dragons made by themselves, wandered around the quaint Shengjing Longcheng, and took photos with each other. The international students said learning about Hongshan Culture and making chocolate jade pig-shaped dragon were the sweetest harvest of their winter holiday this year.