Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Yueqing paper cutting originated in the local folk 'dragon-boat flowers' (longchuanhua), with a history of more than seven hundred years. According to the 'Yueqing County Gazetteer', during the Dade era of the Yuan dynasty, 'in the villages, music and song lasted until dawn; on the thoroughfares, colored paper was cut for all to enjoy, sharing joy with the people'.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The 'cutting of colored paper' mentioned here is paper cutting. Every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, dragon-boat lantern processions are held in the countryside throughout Yueqing. Paper filigree dragon boats and fine-line carved paper are the basic craft and decorative means of the dragon-boat lanterns. In early times the fine-line carved paper on the dragon-boat lanterns consisted of purely geometric patterns; later it developed to include flowers and plants, birds and beasts, landscapes, opera figures and mythological stories, with representative works such as 'Nine Lions' and 'Octagonal Double Fish'. Yueqing fine-line carved paper has subtle, exquisite knife work, vigorous and forceful, with patterns as fine as hairs — meticulous but not cloying, slender but not cluttered — giving it very rich expressive power. Its most outstanding characteristic is fineness: in the early 'dragon-boat flower' carvings, the finest could cut 52 lines within a single square cun (about 3.3 cm) of paper, and a fine-line carved piece the size of a rice bowl would take more than ten days to complete — extremely laborious. The fine-line carved-paper technique enables all kinds of folk patterns and motifs to be rendered meticulously and richly on paper only a few centimeters square, which has earned Yueqing fine-line carved paper the title of 'representative of the Southern School of Chinese paper cutting'. The fine-line carved-paper technique is highly difficult and cannot be mastered in a short time; generally it takes several decades of carving practice before one can create exquisite works. In the past twenty-odd years, with the vigorous rise of light industry in Wenzhou, the production of Yueqing paper-cutting craftware has been affected and has declined; many people have abandoned the art for business, older artists are enfeebled by age, and there are few successors.

Dragon-boat flowers and the dragon-boat lantern

Leqing cutting grew out of dragon-boat flowers over seven centuries ago; on the fifteenth of the first lunar month dragon-boat lanterns paraded through the villages.

Fifty-two lines in a square inch

Its defining trait is fineness: the finest early examples held fifty-two lines within a square inch, and a bowl-sized piece took over ten days to carve.

Nine Lions and Double Fish in an Octagon

Early dragon-boat cuttings were pure geometric patterns; later came flowers, beasts, landscapes, opera figures and myths, with works such as Nine Lions and Double Fish.

The lineages of Lin Bangdong and Chen Yuhua

Modern inheritors include Lin Bangdong, Lin Shunkui, Chen Yuhua and Zheng Yuanxun; Lin Bangdong could carve over two thousand holes in a small square of paper.

The southern school of Chinese paper-cutting

Its craft lets every kind of folk motif be rendered richly on a few square centimetres, earning Leqing the title of southern representative of Chinese paper-cutting.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Yueqing City lies on the coast of southeastern Zhejiang Province. Yueqing fine-line carved paper is a unique art circulating locally, concentrated mainly in Siqian Village and Houheng Village of Xiangyang Town, Dongcai Village of Beibaixiang Town, and Lecheng Town, Liushi Town and Wengyang Town of Yueqing City. Yueqing fine-line carved paper is concentrated in Siqian Village and Houheng Village of Xiangyang Town, Dongcai Village of Beibaixiang Town, and Lecheng, Liushi, Wengyang and other places, with artists most densely concentrated in the two villages of Siqian and Houheng.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The modern inheritors of Yueqing fine-line carved paper include Lin Bangdong, Lin Shunkui, Chen Yuhua, Zheng Yuanxun and Lu Faliang. Lin Bangdong (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1926, a native of Yueqing, Zhejiang. Representative inheritor of Paper Cutting (Yueqing fine-line carved paper), a project of the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage; Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. Lin Bangdong was bold in exploration and skilled at innovation. He expanded the originally monotonous geometric patterns to include flowers and plants, birds and beasts, landscapes and figures, making the technique more vivid and lively, with well-judged density, and giving a strong sense of rhythm and cadence; it also has a distinctly folk, popular-custom and regional character. He could carve more than 2,000 perforations on a paper surface only a few inches square — work of seemingly superhuman skill. His representative works include 'Fish Leaping over the Dragon Gate', 'Flourishing of the Six Domestic Animals' and 'Chart of One Hundred Longevity Characters', among others. Chen Yuhua (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1953, a native of Yueqing, Zhejiang. Representative inheritor of Paper Cutting (Yueqing fine-line carved paper), a project of the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage; Master of Arts and Crafts of Zhejiang Province; senior craft artist. Chen Yuhua comes from a family of fine-line carved-paper artists and was imbued with the family influence from childhood. He not only fully inherited the ancestral technique and produced a large number of works, but also organically combined the technique with modern mounting craft, turning it into a craft object at once classically simple and elegant and rich in modern flavor. His technique is characterized by lines as fine as drifting silk and by working without a draft. He has created many excellent works, which have been collected by the National Art Museum of China and other institutions; he also founded the Yueqing Yuhua Fine-line Carved Paper Research Institute. His representative works include 'Scenic Spots of Wenzhou', 'Abundance Year after Year' and 'Auspicious Dragon and Phoenix', among others.

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 ↗