Jiang Wenying

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Jiang Wenying, Female, Miao, from Jianhe, Guizhou, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Paper-cutting (Ⅶ-16). The tradition is documented in Jianhe, Guizhou. Within the regional tradition and school record of Paper-cutting in Jianhe, Guizhou: Miao paper cutting transmitted in Jianhe County, Guizhou Province, can be divided into two types — the Gedong type and the Xinmin and Xinhe type — whose styles differ from one another. Miao paper cutting has a long history: the section "Crossing Mountains and Rivers" in the Miao Ancient Songs, sung by generations of Miao people in southeastern Guizhou, already contains descriptions of paper cutting. The origins of Miao paper cutting in Jianhe are linked to the migration history of Miao ancestors in the Qingshui River valley; the section "Crossing Mountains and Rivers" in the Miao Ancient Songs, sung by generations of Miao people in southeastern Guizhou, already contains descriptions of paper cutting. Paper cutting has long served two functions in Miao society: first, providing pattern models for embroidery — the cut patterns are applied to cloth and then embroidered; second, use in sacrifices and ceremonies — images sharing heads or bodies, such as two-headed dragons, two-headed birds, two-headed snakes, and two-bodied single-headed dragons, derive from shamanic rites in the Guzang Festival ("eating the communal ox").

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Miao ethnicity, born in July 1971 in Jianhe County, Guizhou Province. From the age of nine she learned paper-cutting from her mother, and by thirteen she had mastered Miao paper-cutting; the embroidery patterns she cuts are vivid and beautiful. Her work Jiang Yang She Ri (Jiang Yang Shoots the Sun) was included in the book Miao Paper-cutting, while a series of paper-cuts on Miao myths and legends, including Jiang Yang Zao Ren (Jiang Yang Creates Humanity), Hu Die Ma Ma (Mother Butterfly) and Luo Si Xi Fu (The Snail Daughter-in-Law), boldly break new ground on the basis of tradition and are much loved by the local people. Within the documented technical tradition of Paper-cutting in Jianhe, Guizhou: Miao paper cutting is commonly known as "Miao flower paper," "cut flowers," and "embroidery paper"; in the Miao language it is called "xigeigang" and "xigeibang," which in Chinese mean "animal paper cutting" and "flower paper cutting." Gedong-type paper cutting has full compositions and rich pictorial content, with motifs mostly of animals, flowers, and figures, including many figures from myth and legend; Xinmin- and Xinhe-type paper cutting is relatively more fluid in composition, with motifs mostly of flowers, birds, and butterflies from the natural world, in exceptionally vivid forms. Miao paper cutting of Jianhe serves as the base pattern and model for Miao embroidery in places such as Gedong, Censong, Xinmin, and Xinhe; after this second stage of working, its artistry is enriched and extended in the embroidery. In this sense, paper cutting is also an important component of Miao embroidery and costume. As the number of local women from Jianhe going out to work has increased year by year, the number of people drawing and making Miao paper cutting has steadily declined; mostly it is older women who remain at home engaged in paper cutting. With the progress of the times and the rapid development of science and technology, people can use the relatively simple method of photocopying embroidery patterns with a copier, so paper cutting's role as a pattern model has gradually diminished. At the same time, the patterns and motifs of paper cutting have mutated, and the cultural meanings of traditional motifs are being forgotten by people in Miao areas. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Gedong type": One manner of Miao cutting: full composition and rich content, with animals, flowers and figures, including figures from myth. "The Xinmin and Xinhe type": The other manner: freer in composition, mostly natural flowers, birds and butterflies, unusually lively in form. "Pattern paper as embroidery draft": Jianhe cutting supplies the drafts for embroidery in Gedong, Censong, Xinmin and Xinhe; pasted to cloth, the pattern is stitched and its art extended in the needlework. "Jiang Yang Shoots the Sun, Butterfly Mother": Jiang Wenying's myth-based works; Jiang Yang Shoots the Sun entered the volume Miao Paper-cutting, while others renewed traditional themes.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

A national representative bearer of Paper-cutting (Miao paper-cutting), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. After graduating from university she devoted herself entirely to the transmission and safeguarding of Miao paper-cutting, founding the Miao Paper-cutting Art Garden and taking on more than three hundred apprentices in succession; as chair of the county women's federation's Women's Ethnic Handicraft Industry Association, she has led more than one thousand women out of poverty toward prosperity through paper-cutting.

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. Jiang Wenying · National Representative Bearer Archive