Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Fengning Manchu Autonomous County in Hebei Province lies north of the Great Wall. Fengning Manchu paper cutting, circulating among the people, began in the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty; by the Qianlong reign it had formed a new and distinctive style with regional characteristics and ethnic features. It is based mainly on yang carving (leaving the lines standing) with yin carving (cutting the lines away) as a complement; its feathered edges (pimao) are long and fine, and the cutting is meticulous. In the late Qing and early Republican period, Fengning Manchu paper cutting entered its heyday; after 1949 its form and content developed further, coming closer to real production and life. After 1960, paper-cutting creation fell into a low ebb. In 1982, the Fengning folk paper-cutting contingent was re-established, and its works, through various exhibitions and performances abroad, exerted a wide influence at home and overseas. In 1993, Fengning was named a 'Hometown of Chinese Folk Paper-Cutting Art' by the Ministry of Culture. Fengning lies north of the Great Wall; paper cutting was already circulating there in the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, and by the Qianlong reign a new and distinctive style combining regional and ethnic features had formed. Local Manchu households customarily paste 'guaya' hanging tags (memorial streamers for worshipping gods and ancestors) on window paper; for New Year festivals, weddings and funerals, paper cuttings in different color tones are chosen according to etiquette and custom, and paper cutting is thus deeply embedded in daily household life.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

By form of expression, it includes single-color paper cutting (red, white, black, etc.), dot-dyed paper cutting, filled-color paper cutting and multi-color composite paper cutting. Among the many folk paper cuttings of China, Fengning Manchu paper cutting holds a place of its own through its distinctive artistic charm. The cuts of Fengning Manchu paper cutting retain long, neat feathered edges (pimao), with clean blocks of area and crisp, upright lines, giving an overall impression of openness and ease; its dot-dyeing demands that the color not spill beyond the lines and that gradations of light and dark be clearly distinguished. The subjects center on Manchu local conditions and customs, rich in the flavor of daily life, and commonly include figures, flowers and birds, domestic fowl and livestock, and auspicious patterns.

The long 'batch hair' cut

Fengning Manchu paper-cutting is mainly positive carved and keeps long, even fringes of 'batch hair' along the cut edges.

Drawing, smoke-copying, cutting and dyeing

The full process: drafting, smoke-copying the design, cutting to the copy, and finally dyeing with a brush in layered washes.

Hanging tags, rain-sweeping figures and kang-wall cuttings

By use it divides into window flowers, ancestral hanging tags, rain-sweeping figures, seasonal cuttings, ritual flowers and ceiling, vent and kang-wall decorations.

Zhang Dongge's pieced and filled colour cuttings

Zhang Dongge began systematic research in 1974 and from 1987 developed pieced-colour and filled-colour cutting, producing works such as Opera Figures and A Hundred Blessings.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

By content, Fengning Manchu paper cutting can be divided into auspicious paper cutting, flower-bird-fish-insect paper cutting, landscape paper cutting, and paper cutting of figures, basins, baskets, plates and bottles, melons and fruits, animals, and flower-character designs, among other categories. By specific use, it can be further divided into window flowers; memorial hanging tags for worshipping gods and ancestors (guaya); 'sky-sweeping crones' (saotianpo) for overcast days; festival paper cuttings; ceremonial flowers (festive red paper cuttings for weddings, plain white ones for funerals, and so on); and ceiling flowers, wind-vent flowers and kang-surround paper cuttings for everyday interior decoration. The making of Fengning Manchu paper cutting goes through the process steps of drafting, smoking the pattern, cutting or carving, and dot-dyeing: first an oil lamp is used to smoke the draft design onto thin paper, leaving a black outline pattern; then scissors are used to cut along the pattern, or a knife to engrave it; finally a brush dipped in dyes blends the color in layer by layer. Most women in the local towns and countryside can handle scissors, and oral instruction with hands-on demonstration between mothers and daughters and between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law is the most common mode of transmission.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present, most of the traditional skills of Fengning Manchu paper cutting remain in the hands of people over seventy years of age; the craft faces the danger of being lost and urgently needs rescue and protection. Zhang Dongge (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Manchu ethnic group, born in 1945, a native of Fengning, Hebei. Representative inheritor of Paper Cutting (Fengning Manchu paper cutting), a project of the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage; folk arts-and-crafts artist of Hebei Province. Imbued with his family's influence from childhood, at the age of five he began helping his mother and elder sister pin down paper cuttings and smoke patterns; at seven he dot-dyed paper cuttings and cut window flowers. In 1974 he began systematic research into folk paper cutting and started creating paper cuttings. After 1987 he concentrated on the inheritance and creation of Manchu folk-custom paper cutting, striving to produce works in different styles, and tentatively created new forms of expression such as color-joining paper cutting and filled-color paper cutting. His paper cutting covers a wide range of subjects, with Manchu local conditions and customs as its main content and a rich breath of daily life; it follows the traditional style of Fengning paper cutting, based mainly on yang carving with yin carving as a complement, with fine, delicate cutwork. His representative works include 'Collection of Opera Figures', 'Hundred Blessings' and 'Sentiments of the Manchu Homeland', among others. The Fengning Manchu Autonomous County Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center is responsible for the investigation, documentation and transmission of this project, expanding the reach of transmission through paper-cutting exhibitions and training classes. By form of expression, Fengning Manchu paper cutting has single-color, dot-dyed, filled-color and multi-color composite varieties; Zhang Dongge tentatively created color-joining and filled-color paper cutting on the basis of tradition.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗