With a long history of running a school, the School of Fine Arts of Minjiang University traces its origin to Fuzhou Arts and Crafts School founded in 1956. In 2018, it co-founded the Zhidao International Lacquer Art Industry College in cooperation with Fuzhou Zhidao Lacquer Culture and Art Co., Ltd. In 2022, it jointly built the Belt and Road Lacquer Art Industry Sino-Foreign Cultural Exchange Research Institute with the Center for International Cultural Exchange of the Ministry of Education, cooperating with the Fuzhou lacquer art industry to carry out talent training, social services and international exchanges.
The School has obvious advantages and distinctive features in disciplines and majors. As one of the earliest professional colleges in Fujian Province and even in China to cultivate arts and crafts design talents, it has trained more than 6,000 arts and crafts design talents for Fujian Province. Among them, alumni such as Zheng Yikun (lacquer art) and Lin Xueshan (wood carving) have been awarded the title of Master of Arts and Crafts by the state and enjoy special government allowances from the State Council. Famous national epigraphers and painters Chen Zifen, Pan Zhulan, Gong Liyi, lacquer art master Li Zhiqing, and the first batch of Chinese Masters of Arts and Crafts Guo Gongsen (Shoushan stone carving) once taught here. Therefore, the School is known in the industry as the Whampoa Military Academy for talent training in the lacquer art field.
The School has 4 majors: Environmental Design, Visual Communication Design, Arts and Crafts, and Painting. It currently has 85 on-the-job faculty and staff members, including 68 full-time teachers, among whom 28 have senior titles or above. There are 859 full-time students on campus.
The Fuzhou Bodiless Lacquerware Decoration Technique led by the School was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. The Fuzhou Bodiless Lacquer Art Research Platform has become a scientific research innovation platform and teaching practice base for local universities supported by the central finance. The characteristic discipline of Design is listed as a provincial applied training site and a university plateau discipline. The Lacquer Art Cultural and Creative Design Specialty Cluster is included in the pilot project of transforming Fujian ordinary undergraduate universities into applied ones. The Painting major is listed as a provincial first-class major. The Environmental Design and Visual Communication Design majors are listed as university characteristic majors.
The School adheres to promoting teaching through scientific research and builds a scientific research service system for the common growth of teachers and students. In the past three years, more than 30 authoritative papers have been published; a total of more than 20 provincial and ministerial projects have been approved and are under research, including 4 National Art Fund projects and 3 Humanities and Social Sciences projects of the Ministry of Education; the accumulated scientific research funds received have reached more than 10 million yuan.
Always adhering to the teaching philosophy of inheriting traditions and forging ahead with innovation, relying on its unique geographical advantages and lacquer art cultural characteristics, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the School will focus on the goal of applied talent training, continuously deepen teaching reform, continue to strengthen university-enterprise cooperation, promote industry-education integration, and cultivate applied art talents who inherit excellent traditions and are full of innovative spirit.
