In Zhaojiashan village, Taiyuan, Ma Juneng turns ordinary fruit and vegetables into startlingly lifelike sculptures — and he’s been at it for two decades. The 38-year-old, originally from Ningxia, learned woodcarving early and later taught himself fruit-and-vegetable carving by watching classes at a nearby culinary school. His very first piece — a carved shrimp — took him ten days.

To master his craft, Ma practices a wide range of knife techniques — from rotary cuts to hollowing — even training blindfolded to build muscle memory. The result is a quiet, everyday magic: with a steady hand, he makes fruit and vegetables do things most people never imagined.

Ma now runs a workshop he set up in Taiyuan in 2023 and draws a large online audience: he livestreams every morning at 9 and has more than 400,000 followers. His repertoire spans traditional motifs such as longevity peaches and peacocks to playful cartoon figures.