Now, people seldom use “bun molds” to make bun in different shapes and some of these molds are even used as firewood. But these molds are treasures in other peoples’ eyes. Pang Huanjian is one of them. For 40 years, he has collected over 5300 molds from Han Dynasty till now. These delicate molds surprised people in Shanghai Guinness Records Headquarter. After their evaluation, Pang is rated as the person with the most “bun molds”.
There is an exhibition stand, taking up nearly 20 square meters in his office, and molds from different times are exhibited in it. The mold he has seen with the longest history is in a human shape. Ming and Qing Dynasty are the most prosperousperiods for making bun molds. His storage house is full of cartons filled with molds by different materials and from different time. There are molds as large as millstones, and there are smaller than little fingers.
He starts to collect these molds in early 2000, after he has his set up an arts company. He combed nearly all over Shandong Province to find these molds. He said that he hopes to establish a museum to promote and inherit folk culture of “bun molds”.
