Huang Lifeng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Born into a family of paper-carving artisans, she came under the artistic influence of her maternal grandfather, Li Yaobao, in early childhood and began to learn the craft of paper carving. Within the regional tradition and school record of Paper-cutting in Quanzhou, Fujian: This custom has continued unbroken in the locality down to the present day. It has enriched the cultural content of the boneless paper-carving and liaosi (silk-filament) art of Quanzhou, and to a certain extent forms a relationship of mutual promotion with the art of liaosi festival lanterns. Quanzhou paper carving began in the Tang dynasty and flourished in the Song. At every Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, and other festive day, every household in Quanzhou cuts red and carves green, hangs lanterns and festoons and peachwood charms, pastes round flowers on the windows, and sticks up red paper slips, creating an atmosphere of archaic, opulent festivity.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

A master of arts and crafts of Fujian Province. Her figure designs combine intaglio (yin) and relief (yang) carving, with lofty conceptions and archaic, elegant forms that display a pronounced southern Fujian local character. She has also integrated paper-carving techniques with the art of Quanzhou lanterns, extending the expressive range of Li Yaobao paper carving. Representative works include Jin She Kuang Wu Ying Feng Nian (Golden Serpents Dance Wildly to Welcome a Bountiful Year). Within the documented technical tradition of Paper-cutting in Quanzhou, Fujian: Li Yaobao paper carving is a representative form of Quanzhou paper cutting that arose in this environment. Li Yaobao (1892-1983), courtesy name Guofu, was born in the Licheng District of Quanzhou City. His father made a living as a painter in lacquer and color, was skilled at folk traditional patterns and adept in the use of color, while his elder brother was skilled in paper carving. From childhood Li Yaobao learned his craft from his father and brother; under the family's influence, relying on his natural talent and hard work, he quickly stood out. He not only fully inherited the Quanzhou paper-carving techniques, but also widely drew nourishment from such arts as paper cutting, piled clay sculpture, applied porcelain, wood engraving, block carving, architecture, and color painting, creatively employing tracing, cutting, carving, and chiseling to form his own unique art of paper carving. Li Yaobao paper carving expanded the traditional range of subjects; his works fall into six major categories, including celebrations, dragons and phoenixes, flowers and birds, and figures. They are rich in content, profound in conception, lifelike in image, and elegant in style, with a strongly decorative quality. Great care is taken in composition and imagery; the knife work is vigorous yet fine, and the lines are full of rhythm, giving the works extremely high aesthetic value. Quanzhou (Li Yaobao) paper carving condenses the essence of the decorative art of southern Fujian and holds a certain representative place among the folk arts of southern Fujian. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The four methods: tracing, cutting, carving and picking": Li Yaobao drew on paper-cutting, relief, porcelain inlay, woodblock, architecture and painting, applying tracing, cutting, carving and picking to create his own art. "Frameless cut paper and filigree lanterns": Quanzhou carving enriches the local art of frameless cut paper and filigree lanterns, the two forms mutually reinforcing. "Li Yaobao (1892-1983) and his career": Born in Licheng district of Quanzhou, Li Yaobao learned from his painter father and carving brother, mastering the whole local craft. "The six subject categories": Li Yaobao broadened the repertory into six categories—festive, dragon-and-phoenix, flower-and-bird, figure and others—dense in meaning and elegant in style.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1968 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province; a national representative bearer of Paper-cutting (Quanzhou [Li Yaobao] paper carving), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 2004 she received the title of National Outstanding Rural Youth Folk Craft Expert from the Communist Youth League Central Committee and the China Folk Literature and Art Association. For many years she has devoted herself to research on Li Yaobao paper-carving techniques and to training successors, and she founded the Li Yaobao Paper-Carving and Silk-Thread Research Studio.

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. Huang Lifeng · National Representative Bearer Archive