Chinese artist intricately carves 1,000 Journey to the West characters into eggshells

Picture this: you’re holding a chicken egg, not to whip up an omelette, but to carve Sun Wukong’s mischievous monkey face on to its paper-thin, brittle shell.

Sounds impossible, right? Well, in a cramped Beijing studio, 40-year-old Ma Chao (China) pulled it off, not just once, but 1,040 times, crafting an entire Journey to the West saga on eggshells and snagging a Guinness World Records title for the largest display of engraved eggs. 

So, what is eggshell carving? At its core, it’s the delicate act of etching intricate designs on to shells as thin as 0.3 millimeters. The shell could shatter if you sneeze, so you’ve got to hold your breath, keep your hands steady, and your focus razor-sharp. One slip, and it’s game over. Oh, and the shell’s curved, so forget flat-surface drawing tricks - every stroke has to dance along that tricky arc.

“It tests your eyes, your hands, and your ability to stay sane,” Ma Chao said.

He put his skills to the test, deciding to recreate the Journey to the West (1986) TV series on eggshells. Classic character traits such as Sun Wukong’s spiky fur is so detailed you’d swear it was done under a microscope. Thousands of cuts on a shell the size of your palm, all adding up to art instead of a scrambled mess.

Ma Chao’s story doesn’t scream “artist” from the get-go. As a kid, he stumbled across carved eggshells in his school art room - floral patterns etched into something so fragile he couldn’t wrap his head around it. “How do you even draw on something that breakable?” he’d wonder. 

He loved art, but his family couldn’t afford lessons. After trade school, he landed in construction, teaching himself 3D design and even starting his own business by 2010. 

Life was solid until he turned 35, when he thought: “Enough. I want to do what I love.” So, he ditched the drafting table for eggshells and a knife, starting from scratch.

Teaching himself eggshell carving was no picnic. He pored over art books, chatted to online hobbyists, and hacked away, shattering eggs, slicing his fingers, and straining his eyes red.

But he kept at it, figuring out the finesse: light strokes for thin shells, curved lines for arched surfaces. Four years later, he wasn’t just carving birds - he was breathing life into his favourite Journey to the West characters, which he trapped in eggshells like tiny, fragile time capsules.

Why Journey to the West? “Those four chasing their dream, pushing through hell - it’s me,” Ma Chao says. He adored the old TV series’ character designs and wanted to resurrect them in his own way. So, he set a wild goal: carve 1,040 pieces and go for a Guinness World Records title. One egg a day, knife in hand, eyes glued to the shell... for four years. 

Egg carving’s been around in China since the Ming and Qing dynasties, but it’s fading fast. Ma Chao gets it - old crafts need eyes on them to survive. He hopes his work sparks a fire, making people wonder: “What else can you do with an egg?”

He’s already dreaming up ways to keep it alive, maybe mixing it with modern design or carving anime characters for the social media crowd.

“Art’s tough because it’s all about sticking with it,” he says with a laugh. “Eggs break, sure, but you just grab another.”