The work was named by Li himself as "The Old Men Selling Grease," which reflects a title in his Chinese textbook and was something that he had longed to do for years.

Looking at the exquisite collection of green coloured "old men" with their delicately made heads, hats, arms, grease barrels and shoulder poles, one is amazed at their complexity and it is hard to believe they were actually created by one so young.

The brilliant craftsmanship, of the figures in "The old men selling Grease" won Li the award for the best created work at the First Chinese UNESCO Creative Activity held in Anji, some 70 kilometres from Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, in mid-March.

Some 20,000 young people from kindergartens and schools throughout Anji took part in the scheme, with the final entries numbering nearly 1,000 toys. Their talent and creativity won the acclaim of both their proud parents, teachers and those who visited the display when they were shown.

"Games and play are as necessary and important for any child's growth as food and medicine. They enable children to improve their talents and study the ways of making contact with other people," said Siegfried Zoels, president of Toys for Children's Rehabilitation, a non-profit German organization, and the organizer of the activity.

Established in 1991, the organization has already held 11 successful creative toy workshops in 11 different countries. Each produced hundreds of new toys and ideas.

Today, after 11 years, this huge toy creating venture, co-operated with UNESCO, finally arrived in China.

Anji, known as the home of bamboo, became the first lucky location to benefit from this truly global scheme. Not surprisingly, the main theme was bamboo, or to be more precise, "making toys with bamboo and other materials."

Twenty foreign experts from 15 countries, including designers, architects and educationalists, took part in the activity. They stayed with the children in Anji and helped them design and develop some 50 original toys.

In about two weeks, an extraordinary array of bamboo toys had come into being.

Fourteen-year-old Yu Shuai from Anji made an apple-like bamboo toy, which can be simply transformed from a table mat to a fruit basket.

The event also featured works by children from overseas. One, entitled "Cinema" by Frauke Winkelmann from Germany was ingeniuosly simple, but wonderfully effective. By blowing into a bamboo pipe a mechanism triggered an animation and comic strip display.

Football crazy youngsters from Brazil brought the love of their national game to their creations. A puppet produced by Brazilian Nadia Khaled Zuraba was called the "Good Player." By inserting the first and third fingers into its bamboo legs a player can move the puppet to kick a ball.

Simplicity itself! Other colourful toys which packed the exhibition at the Anji Bamboo Museum, included a bamboo chess board, bamboo reading sticks for 3-year-olds, bamboo fishing game, bamboo musical instrument, bamboo rocking chair, bamboo dragon, bamboo pagoda, bamboo horse and many others not easily classified.

The pieces on display were just a very small part of the huge number of original toys created from a variety of resources by children around the world.

"To inspire our children, we need to start our toy-making with the real users of the toys - children. Usually toys are made by adults, and thereafter reflect the ideas of adults. However, by talking and spending time with children, especially the disabled, we are able to know their original needs," said Zoels.

He said his organization encouraged children to make toys by themselves, so that their talents and skills can be best developed.

"It is unbelievable to see the wonderful toys made this time. Only two weeks, isn't it marvellous?" exclaimed Zoels at the exhibition.

"This is the first time that we have ever tried to make toys with bamboo, a very ecologically sound material for toy making," he said.

Compared to wood, which comes from a tree that can take 80 to 100 years to grow, a mature bamboo tree only takes just five years.

"Bamboo grows in many parts of the world, like China, India, Africa, South America and so on. It has a perfect hardness and toughness for making toys, and has provided enormous scope for the imagination," said Zoels.

In Anji, there are 64,800 hectares of bamboo, with an annual output value of over 4 billion yuan (US$482 million). Each year, more than 700 kinds of bamboo-made crafts are exported to all parts of the planet.

Alvaro Cifrentes, a visitor from Columbia, said: "I am very much impressed with all these bamboo toys. Every one of them is so beautifully made. I mean, we do have bamboo in my country, but it is usually used for construction, but never for toys."

Li Heqing, a teacher from a local school in Anji, said: "Actually, making bamboo crafts is the speciality of the children here in Anji."

A toy made by one of his students was selected for inclusion in the exhibition.

"Growing up with bamboos, almost every child here knows how to make bamboo things at an early age," said Li.

"They make bamboo whistles and as they grow up, they learn to make all kinds of bamboo products from their parents and relatives."

Li said that in Anji, the imagination and ability of a child is highly appreciated by schools.

All kinds of competitions aimed at encouraging children's craftsmanship are always being held in this medium sized city.

"The bamboo toys made in the past two weeks are wonderful. We will test them in schools and kindergartens in both China and Germany.

The designs of those which are recommended by the children will be included in books, so that other children from all over the world can make bamboo toys by themselves at home," said Zoels.

(China Daily March 25, 2003)