Chinese ice carvers give Jakartans a glimpse of winter wonderland

By Chris Supangkat

JAKARTA (JP): There's a small glimpse of life on ice in the capital these days. In fact, if it were any more extensive most of us would freeze our noses off, being tropical creatures.

Inside the Harbin International Ice Snow, held until May, the temperature is kept at 18 degrees Celsius below zero. It is a virtual giant ice box in the middle of Gelora Senayan's parking lot in Central Jakarta.

The dreamy, neon clad, ice structures on display there are of famous landmarks, like the Great Wall of China (equipped with an adult slide), Keong Mas (with children's slide), Monas and the Istiqlal Mosque, as well as the famous Temple of Heaven in Peking.

There are also sculptures of pagodas, deer and Chinese figurines, as well as a meditating Buddha which lights up when one drops a coin in a box provided -- a bit tacky but fun to do.

Another attraction is the small ice fountain which spews running water, thanks to the heater installed strategically inside.

To add to the "winter wonderland" atmosphere, a machine dishes out snow every day from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 10 o'clock at night.

The ice show, held by PT Idola Keluarga Utama and the Army's Yayasan Jaya Sejahtera Kodam Jaya foundation, saw around 4,000 visitors on March 26, its opening day.

To create the icy wonderland, the committee had to bring in 40 craftsmen and builders from the Harbin International Ice Snow Tourism Developing Center of China, along with 21 containers worth of equipment, including the freezing unit, all weighing 400 tons.

None of the equipment went to waste as the team started from scratch and worked as rapidly as possible. The prefabricated 1,500-square-meter building was erected in 26 days. The carvings themselves, all 300 of them, were finished in 18 days, using 4,000 ice blocks.

Transition

Although the organization from Harbin is a professional one, run by the Harbin provincial government and the only one acknowledged by the Chinese government, it is made up of ice sculptors who usually carve up wood and cement.

At Harbin, the transition from cement and wood carving to sculpting ice is a natural one. Given the winter conditions and the fact that many structures in China are decorated with intricate carvings, the two make a natural connection, although a technical difference is noticeable.

A member of the Harbin entourage, carver Huang Zhao Yuan commented: "The difference between carving on ice and on cement, when the carving on cement is not perfect, then you just add more cement, on ice it has to be cut.

"Like if you want to make a nose and it turns out ugly, if the block is still large enough, then we can cut and make a new one underneath it. But if it's not possible then we throw it away."

As a member of the Harbin International Ice Snow, the carvers take pride their talent, which they take into serious consideration. Huang, who has toured extensively with the group, said carvers of other nations are less serious about their work.

Talent and creativity, instead of the time consumed in carving, he said, determines the expert carver.

But not all the crew are excellent carvers, although they can arrange the blocks of ice well. A sense of balance is required, calculating the stacks of ice according to the size and shape of the sculpture.

One of the techniques they claim to be unique to their group involves the use of tubes of light embedded in the ice.

The "lamp in ice" trick is one that they are always perfecting.

The idea behind it came 300 to 400 years ago, when, during the winter, the citizens of Harbin took barrels and filled them with water, which froze quickly on the outside, leaving the middle liquid. A hole was then made, through which they introduced a lamp.

Ingenuity

With no electricity, they used oil lamps inside the ice as street lights. This prevented gusts of wind from extinguishing the lamps and provided a better range of light. That ingenuity has been studied ever since.

The sculptors from Harbin are also prideful of their purpose, to especially promote the city of Harbin, the capital of Heilungkiang province, Manchuria.

So far they've been successful in traveling the globe, doing exhibits in Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, and in several cities in their home country.

Along with this current exhibition from China, the prospect of ice carving in Indonesia deserves a bit of scrutiny. Logically a tropical city such as Jakarta cannot support a serious ice carving venture like Harbin's. Here carvers are mostly isolated in hotels or catering companies.

Voicing the problems of ice carving in Indonesia, Indra Solichin, a member of the kitchen staff at the Hilton Hotel comments, "In books I've seen from Japan, to create a very good sculpture from a block of ice takes one hour. Here they demand a finished piece in 10 minutes."

Although the weather is such, carving is still done outside, due to the small size of the freezers available. The ice sculpture is then stored. At the hotel where he works, Indra specializes in chocolate, butter, and ice. He prefers ice over the other media because it is used at all parties and functions at the hotel.

He has to cater to all his customer's requests, from the carving of oil rigs to Korean structures. Such ice carvings usually last four to five hours in air conditioned rooms.

Unlike the Harbin carvers, Indra apprenticed at the hotel for three months, although the other requirements are the same, such as a strong physique, creativity, imagination and a good sense of balance.

Even though Indra and his staff cannot compare to the Chinese carvers in the size or majesty of their works, they've collected a few laurels for themselves.

In 1989, they won first place at an international ice show in Sapphoro, Japan, and the best participant prize the year after that. In Indonesia they've consistently placed first since 1987, at competitions held by Togues Blanches, an international chef's organization, which has a branch in Indonesia.

Recently they had just finished an exhibit at Food Asia, held in Singapore.

The development of ice carving in Indonesia is still quite static, with very few people making an actual career out of it.

Indra himself is understaffed. "There used to be seven people, then there were only four left and the ice kept coming... The personnel department searched for new people, but none qualified. So I took some part-timers and trained them for four months."

There are a scattered number of freelancers taking jobs mostly for restaurants and doing a brisk business. They can accommodate orders for up to 10 blocks of ice per day, charging around Rp 60,000 per block of ice. But still, it's a new market with few pioneers. And Jakarta remains a long way from being able to stage its own ice show.