Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Ansai lies near the frontier, on the loess plateau of northern Shaanxi, where farming and garrison life have been interwoven throughout history; paper cutting has been handed down from generation to generation in dependence on local New Year, wedding and funeral customs. In former times, rural women had few opportunities to learn to read, so they entrusted their prayers for peace and good fortune to paper cutting; it was transmitted from mother to daughter and from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, with few specialized pattern books or workshops — the styles were passed on entirely through memory and hand-to-hand teaching.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Ansai paper cutting is a folk art popular in Ansai County, Shaanxi Province. On all festive days, the women of Ansai cut paper cuttings and paste window flowers. In the twelfth lunar month, the women gather together and cut paper for the Spring Festival well in advance; as New Year approaches, the newly pasted pure white window paper of every household is covered with red and green paper cuttings. Thus, a whole village becomes an exhibition of paper-cutting art. Experts have commented that Shaanxi paper cutting is in northern Shaanxi, and northern Shaanxi paper cutting is in Ansai. Ansai paper cutting is not only beautiful in form and fine in cutwork but also possesses profound historical and cultural content, encompassing aesthetics, history, philosophy, folklore, archaeology and cultural anthropology; it has been praised as an 'above-ground cultural relic' and a 'living fossil' of culture. Ansai paper cutting is diverse in form, simple and condensed in style, bold and bright in line, plain and unadorned in meaning, and full of prayers for peace and good fortune.

Cutting and pasting window flowers in the twelfth month

On festive days Ansai women cut and paste window flowers; in the twelfth month neighbours gather to prepare them, so a whole village becomes an exhibition.

Auspicious motifs such as the topknot doll

Its motifs carry auspicious meaning—the topknot doll, fish and lotus, snake and hare, pomegranate and peony—rendered in plain, bold lines.

Li Xiufang and Ansai Waist Drums

Born in 1940, Li Xiufang combines a solid folk-art grounding with modern painting influences; her Ansai Waist Drums is a representative work.

Gao Jin'ai's negative cutting, toothed and spiral ornament

Gao Jin'ai (1922–2011) worked with free, plain forms, mainly negative cutting with toothed and spiral ornament, producing a bold, masculine beauty.

Called 'relics above ground' and a 'living fossil'

Beyond its fine craft, Ansai cutting carries deep cultural content across aesthetics, history and ethnology, and is called relics above ground and a living fossil.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

By use, Ansai paper cutting can be divided into window flowers, wall flowers, joyous flowers, lantern flowers and patterns for dowry embroidery, among other categories; by subject, it includes the 'topknot child' (zhuajiwawa), fish sporting with lotus, snake coiling around rabbit, pomegranate with peony, and abundant harvests of all grains, mostly taking auspicious meanings. Within the county, the women of each village inherit their own patterns, and the styles differ from one another, some bold and bright, others fine and graceful. In the late twentieth century, Ansai paper cutting was progressively collected, organized and introduced to the art world, and the works of a number of rural women thereby became known.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Li Xiufang (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1940, a native of Ansai, Shaanxi. Li Xiufang has a solid foundation in folk art and, in her studies, has been influenced by modern painting, so her paper-cutting works possess both traditional connotation and the aesthetic taste of modern people. Her technique is practiced and brisk, and her works have strong artistic power to move. She has trained numerous disciples; her representative works include 'Ansai Waist Drum', among others. Representative inheritor of Paper Cutting (Ansai paper cutting), a project of the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. Gao Jin'ai (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): The greatest characteristic of her paper-cutting works is their freely varying forms — plain and elegantly simple, with the exterior and interior decoration clear and uncomplicated. Her cutting method is based mainly on the 'an' (dark or hidden cut) technique, and her ornamentation makes frequent use of 'toothed' (daya) cuts and spiral patterns. Her works as a whole are substantial and powerful, fierce and imposing, presenting a masculine beauty. She currently has three apprentices. Her representative works include 'Ai Tiger' (the mugwort tiger), among others. Female, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1922 and deceased in 2011, a native of Ansai, Shaanxi. Representative inheritor of Paper Cutting (Ansai 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 ↗