Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Zhongyang lies in the Lüliang mountain region in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, where paper cutting has long circulated in dependence on local seasonal festivals and life-cycle rituals. In former times, window flowers were pasted at New Year and festivals, joyous flowers were used at weddings, and plain-colored paper filigrees at funerals; paper cutting thereby became a folk craft handed down from generation to generation, its principal makers being the working women of the countryside.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Zhongyang County in Shanxi Province lies in the Lüliang region of the Loess Plateau in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Zhongyang paper cutting is mostly cut from red paper, expressing the festive, warm atmosphere of folk custom; at other times, in accordance with custom, works are cut from colored papers such as purple, black, yellow, green and blue. The principal makers of Zhongyang paper cutting are the working women of the Zhongyang countryside; paper cutting is an important part of their daily lives and a concentrated expression of their aesthetic taste and intelligence. Zhongyang paper cutting is rich in a rustic, earthy air and the plain beauty of primitive art, vividly recording the ideals and aspirations of working women. Once these elderly people have passed away, Zhongyang paper cutting will inevitably face a situation with no successors and will eventually die out. The motifs of Zhongyang paper cutting mostly take their meaning from homophones — for example, fish sporting with lotus, a snake coiling around a rabbit, pomegranate with peony — expressing wishes for many children and abundant blessings and for peace and good fortune. Before cutting, the artists do not sketch drafts; relying on memory and imagination, they cut in a single uninterrupted flow, and the same pattern takes on a different variation in different hands.

Style differences along the Nanchuan valley, Liujiaping and the western hills

The Nanchuan valley style is fine and classical, Liujiaping is plain and vigorous, and the remote western hills are bold and thick.

Fish, frog, snake and hare motifs

Its motifs include fish, frogs, snakes and hares, alongside seasonal, ritual and mythological subjects rooted in local belief.

Wang Jiru and her representative works

Born in 1947, Wang Jiru developed a bold, thick and classically restrained style, known for works such as Harvest Joy, Spring Ploughing and Shanxi Merchants.

Cuttings for festivals and rites of passage

Cuttings serve both seasonal display and rites of passage, usually in red but sometimes in purple, black, yellow, green or blue paper.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

This region has an extremely deep accumulation of folk culture and retains many original human environments, from which Zhongyang paper cutting has formed its ancient folk-cultural content and artistic form. Zhongyang paper cutting is mainly distributed in the Nanchuan River valley, the Liujiaping area and the remote mountain districts of the western hills within Zhongyang County. The folk paper cutting of the Nanchuan River valley is delicate in style, simple and elegantly classical, occupying the mainstream position within Zhongyang paper cutting. The paper cutting of Liujiaping is plain and vigorous in style, while that of the remote western-hill districts is bold and substantial; together with the mainstream style of the Nanchuan River valley, they depend on and complement one another, enriching the character of Zhongyang paper cutting. Zhongyang paper cutting is inseparably bound to local traditional folk culture. Its main subjects are Zhongyang's local folk beliefs, seasonal festivals, life rituals and myths and legends; these include decorative motifs centered on fish, frogs, snakes and rabbits, folk-custom paper cuttings made to accompany seasonal festivals and life rituals, and paper-cutting works on themes from folk mythology.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The transmission of its skills is generally spontaneous, though it is also passed on within families. The principal inheritors today are some dozen people, including Wang Jiru, Gao Baoxiang, Liu Yulian, Wang Zhongwen and Ma Cuilian, all over sixty years of age. Measures should therefore be taken as early as possible to rescue it. Wang Jiru (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1947, a native of Zhongyang, Shanxi. Her paper cutting has clear regional characteristics — bold and substantial, simple and elegantly classical — forming a unique artistic style. Her representative works include 'Joy of the Harvest', 'Busy Springtime' and 'Jin Merchants', among others. Representative inheritor of Paper Cutting (Zhongyang paper cutting), a project of the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage.

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 ↗