From the legendary general Guan Yu with his long blade to Star Wars icons wielding lightsabers, 37-year-old Chen Yuan from Guizhou province sculpts classic characters to bring dough to life.

As one of the inheritors of Zunyi's dough-sculpting tradition, Chen transforms palm-sized lumps of dough in his studio. Using an array of carving knives, he teases out the faces of mythical beasts.

He kneads jet-black dough until it gleams like satin. Then, with his thumb and forefinger, he pushes, pulls, twists, and rolls — his fingers acting like razor-sharp tools as simple dough becomes vivid human and animal figures.