Ni Xiumei

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Ni Xiumei, Female, Unspecified, from Fangzheng, Heilongjiang, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Paper-cutting (Ⅶ-16). The tradition is documented in Fangzheng, Heilongjiang. Within the regional tradition and school record of Paper-cutting in Fangzheng, Heilongjiang: Fangzheng papercutting is a distinctive kind of Northeast Chinese folk papercutting, popular in the area of Fangzheng County, Heilongjiang Province. Through the continuous efforts of local residents, Fangzheng papercutting has gradually formed regional characteristics different from those of Central Plains papercutting. Fangzheng papercutting is plain, pure, and beautiful, full of artistic charm; its papercutting artists have learned from many different schools, and a great variety of styles flourish. In the mid-Qing dynasty, as Northeast China was opened for settlement, large numbers of immigrants from within the Passes poured into Heilongjiang, bringing many achievements of the folk culture of the Central Plains peoples. It was in this period that the papercutting craft was introduced to Fangzheng. In 1993, Fangzheng County was named a "Hometown of Chinese Folk Papercutting Art" by the Ministry of Culture.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, of Han ethnicity, born in May 1967 in Fangzheng County, Heilongjiang Province. Influenced by her mother, she was passionately fond of paper-cutting from childhood. In 1982 she joined the county art (paper-cutting) creative workshop, learning paper-cutting from the workshop's teachers and from veteran local folk artists. Within the documented technical tradition of Paper-cutting in Fangzheng, Heilongjiang: After the founding of the People's Republic of China, and especially since the reform and opening up, Fangzheng papercutting has developed further, and papercutting artists have emerged who both command traditional papercutting techniques and excel at expressing new life. Fangzheng papercutting combines the strengths of local traditions and outside arts, forming a bold, concise style rich in the characteristics of Northeast Chinese folk art. In its making it employs self-made papercutting tools, with distinctive techniques and an emphasis on decoration. Its subjects are diverse, its forms plain and charming, and its compositions elegant and graceful, providing a vivid example for research into the emergence and development of Northeast Chinese folk art. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The craft brought in by migrants after the Qing lifting of the ban": When the northeast was opened in the mid-Qing, migrants poured into Heilongjiang bringing Central Plains folk arts, and paper-cutting reached Fangzheng then. "Ni Xiumei and The Fragrance of Northeast Soybeans": Born in 1967, Ni Xiumei joined the county cutting workshop in 1982; her Fragrance of Northeast Soybeans won the Shanhua gold prize in 2004. "Home-made tools and an emphasis on ornament": Fangzheng cutting blends local and imported traditions into a bold, spare style, using home-made tools and stressing ornament. "Named a hometown of Chinese folk paper-cutting in 1993": In 1993 the Ministry of Culture named Fangzheng a hometown of Chinese folk paper-cutting, its cutters forming many schools.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Representative bearer of Paper-cutting (Fangzheng paper-cutting), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 2004 her series The Fragrance of North-East Soybeans won the gold award of the China Folk Literature and Art Shanhua Award, jointly presented by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Society for the Study of Folk Literature and Art. In 2013 she received the Chinese Paper-cutting Art Creative Achievement Award from the Paper-cutting Art Committee of the Chinese Culture Promotion Society. Taking the rescue, protection and development of Fangzheng paper-cutting as her own responsibility, she works hard to train new practitioners and has successively established the Deshan Paper-cutting Art Training Centre, the Songnan Township Paper-cutting Training Centre and the Fangzheng School for the Deaf and Mute Paper-cutting Training Centre, with notable results.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Ni Xiumei · National Representative Bearer Archive