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- India and may have introduced the concept of carving ivory for religious statues to craftsmen in Macao or Canton. There are a number of Christian devotional ivory figures, which were obviously made in China that have survived in Portuguese collections. However, there is no documentation that suggests they commissioned ivory statues to be made in China. They may have simply purchased them from the Spanish when visiting Manila.
The Spanish probably introduced the idea of figurai carving to late Ming Chinese carvers. They developed ports of call along the coast of Fujian from their base in Luzon (Manila). Chinese junks also established a regular and profitable trade business with the Spanish at Manila. The Spanish brought large amounts of silver bullion from the New World to trade with the coastal ports of Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Fuzhou. The Chinese craftsmen, who had a good supply of ivory, may have looked for a way to use the raw material. From prints, paintings and actual religious figures, they were encouraged to copy ivory statues like the Madonna and Child. By the 1560s, the Chinese were producing numerous ivory religious imagery; imitating Gothic Christian figures for the Spanish colonial churches, especially in the Philippines. A major ivory industry grew up to cater to Spanish needs as can be attested by pieces in Philippine and Mexican collections. Because of the trade links that developed between Spanish and Zhangzhou merchants, both in Manila and Fujian, it made it possible for Zhangzhou to become a leading centre for the production of ivory figure carving
Subsequently, the late Ming ivory craftsmen appear to have adopted the concept of figure carving and modified it to local religious themes, which appealed to domestic Chinese tastes. It is interesting to make comparisons between Gothic-style images of the Virgin Mary and Infant Christ with the Ming Chinese images of the Buddhist deity Guanyin with child. In fact, the images of Madonna and Child, which already had Chinese features because they were carved in China, were easily converted to or progressed into the Buddhist songzhi Guanyin image. The Guanyin statue holding a baby is a touching remainder of the Chinese wife�s duty to bear male children. Figures of Guanyin were like talimans to women, who prayed to them for an end to infertility and gave thanks to them on the birth of a son. Since early Guanyin ivory sculptures appear to have been inspired by European examples and were made in response to the Sino-Spanish market in Christian imagery, they could be called sinicized Western Christian ivories. Similarities between the two are undeniable.
Another Chinese ivory image, which may owe its origins to Christian ivory carving, is the ��plump� nude image of a reclining Chinese woman. It may have been inspired by the European ivory carvings of a nude and chubby, recumbent infant Christ with a full head of hair. The Chinese ivory carvers may have misinterpreted the image as a woman or may have deliberately maintained the pose but changed the sex to create an erotic image. In any case, many stories abound of this erotic female statue. Antique dealers maintain that prudish Chinese women did not allow themselves to be examined by their doctors but would use a doctor�s ivory model to point out the troubled areas on her own body. The so called �medicine or diagnostic doll� became a popular item for export to foreign markets. However, the story of its being a doctor�s model is probably just a romantic tale told to ensure a good sale.
The Chinese ivory carvers, especially in Zhangzhou, began to carve large numbers of Buddhist and Daoist images which symbolize such things as long life, wealth, happiness
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