Due to Beijing's long history as an agrarian society, a rich and vibrant cultural heritage has been preserved. One part of this culture is the indigenous folk art and traditional handicrafts. Folk art embodies different parts of the Beijing's indigenous culture, minority languages, and philosophy.

Beijing is home to many traditional handicrafts such as paper-cuts petit-point objects, palace lanterns, fan-making, carvings, dough figurines, and sugar figurines. Yet many of these crafts may soon disappear, if the next generation of artisans does not continue to make these ancient arts.

A Japanese writer says, "The spread of modernization has pushed traditional craftsmanship away from us without being noticed. The communication between people and objects and the harmony between human and nature are also gone." This issue bothers Beijing too.

Shichahai, with its 800-year history, traditional courtyard, and long Hutong culture, is a sightseeing destination for tourists as well as Beijingers. However, the flourishing tourism does not strengthen its unique characteristics.

Making use of the invasion of modern civilization, few folk artists in Beijing show their skills here. Nowadays, people pay particular attention to health and nutrition, therefore, those peddlers who sell food artworks are gradually disappearing, but the fantastic impressions they have created will never fade. Haunted by loneliness or emptiness, some elder Beijingers sometimes choose to stroll in the street. They know very well that they cannot come across those peddlers, yet recalling their childhood experiences will certainly bring back sweet and pleasant feelings.

In Beijing, a modern city, many traditional handicrafts can only be found in the nooks and crannies of the city that westernization has left untouched.

The skill of interior painting inside a snuff bottle is originated in Beijing, with a history of more than 200 years. Using a special hook through the top hole, skilled artists draw pictures such as figures, animals, flowers and calligraphies on the inner side of transparent opium bottles. Materials as precious as jade, crystal or agate and as common as glass or plastic can all be used to make inside paintings.

To promote the development of Beijing's traditional handicrafts, the Culture Industry Chamber of Commerce, which is a sub-branch of the Beijing Municipal Chamber of Commerce, cooperates with many of these service-oriented enterprises. Many folk artists will be hired by some companies to perform and show their skills in the shops. Each performance usually attracts a crowd of children and adolescents, and the artists can teach them some basic skills on the spot.

These activities create a favorable atmosphere for the development of traditional handicrafts, and they provide another way to further develop some folk arts on the verge of extinction.

Life in teahouses is an important part of Beijing's traditional folk culture. Based on his observation of life in the teahouses, Jiang Shouju has produced this masterpiece: more than sixty 'monkey tea-drinkers' have different poses, some jumping on the desk, some kicking the stools, some laughing, some fighting, and many more sipping tea with teacups in their hands. Their different gestures and poses indicate their inner emotions.

Ivory carving, jade carving, lacquer carving and cloisonne can best represent Beijing's folk artistic achievements. History, civilization and folk custom can all be seen in these handicraft skills.

Beijing is the cradle of the technique of cloisonne. Beijingers like to decorate their rooms with cloisonne pieces such as desks, chairs, benches, chopsticks, ear rings, sugar jars and cigarette cases.

At some tourist spots in Beijing, it is easy to find a 2-Yuan cloisonne bracelet, a 5-Yuan cloisonne garnishry, or other cheap but coarse wares of inferior quality and poor artistic value.

It is admitted that some carved wood wares can only be made in Beijing. Beijing is home to numerous imperial palaces, many of which are made of wood. In the course of construction, so as best exhibit the supreme imperial power, the best wood-carving craftsmen were summoned to Beijing, and a special department in charge of construction was consequently established. The educated and painters were responsible for designing and constructing patterns exclusively for the royal palaces. A unique imperial wood-carving art was thus formed, and the gap between imperial and folk wood-carving art was intensified.

Beijing's wood-carving technique is based upon Beijing's wood-structured architectures. Wood-carving and architecture go hand in hand. In construction, wood-carving must take into consideration the shapes of wood frames, wood components, and material quality, so as to achieve a sense of harmony and beauty among the architecture, decoration and structure.

Since the Qing Dynasty, furniture turned away from the simple and lucid style that was dominant in the Ming Dynasty. A large number of complicated wood-carving patterns were added to the furniture. This marked the peak of Beijing's imperial wood-carving art. Now, the interior designs of many service industries in Beijing still choose imperial style.

The folk arts and crafts industry used to be the backbone industry of Beijing, but now they are facing serious problems such as having no qualified successors, arts being lost and dramatic slump in production. Because of the amount of time necessary to hand-make crafts, the low income of craftsmen, and the time it takes to really get a handle on the skill, young people are reluctant to devote themselves to the traditional handicraft industry. Thus, the shortage of professional folk artists is inevitable, and the gap between modern civilization and traditional culture will continue to widen.

Many traditional art forms are in danger of being lost forever. Jade bonsai are another of Beijing's traditional crafts. Taking the natural color, luster and texture of various kinds of jade into consideration, craftsmen then carve the jade into petals and leaves. Later, the leaves and petals are pieced together to make delicate jade bonsai.

How to stimulate the development of Beijing's folk arts and let them flourish has already become an issue open for discussion.