Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

The history of Horinger papercutting has run parallel with the local farming-and-herding way of life. Its themes are drawn in large part from festival customs, life-cycle rituals, funerary observances, and religious taboos, while its patterns preserve the life worship and totemic beliefs of the ancient northern steppe peoples. Because written records were long lacking, papercutting became an important vehicle for transmitting the region's age-old customs and designs.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Horinger papercutting has spread widely across this land. Created by working women, it is deeply rooted in the grassland while also absorbing the content of the farming culture of the Central Plains. Horinger papercutting has a long history. Closely bound up with local social customs, it permeates every aspect of the daily life of the broad farming and herding population. Large numbers of works reflect the ancient cultural traditions of the Horinger region over thousands of years, vividly presenting its festival customs, life-cycle rituals, funerary practices, and religious taboos. Horinger papercutting is naturally formed, plain yet romantic, and grand in scale, expressing the simple, forthright, warm, and candid temperament of the northern peoples. Horinger papercutting is made without a preliminary draft: the cutting is completed in one continuous motion, so the forms seem naturally formed and the lines plain yet romantic, the whole bearing a sweeping momentum and the simple, forthright temperament of the northern peoples. Common motifs include deer, eagles, dogs, rabbits, the tree of life, and various flowers and plants, most chosen for their homophonic and symbolic associations.

Deer-head flower, paired-dog tree of life, eagle on hare

Duan Jianjun's Golden Lotus Deer, Deer-head Flower, Paired-dog Tree of Life and Eagle on Hare embody ancient northern grassland notions of life and totem.

Duan Jianjun's cutting and Spring Comes to the Grassland

Born in 1973, Duan Jianjun learned from his aunt Duan Liannü; he stresses overall momentum, his scissors flowing and surging, with works such as Spring Comes to the Grassland.

Cuttings in festivals and rites of passage

The cutting permeates every aspect of farming and herding life, reflecting festivals, rites of passage, funerals and beliefs.

Motifs blending herding and farming

South-central Inner Mongolia's long coexistence of herding and farming gives the cutting a blended regional character.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Horinger County lies in the central-southern part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where the nomadic and farming economies have long coexisted, creating a distinctive regional landscape in which nomadic culture and farming culture blend seamlessly. Talented and outstanding Horinger papercutting artists have expressed the ancient customs, social consciousness, and decorative patterns that have long circulated locally through the medium of papercutting with consummate skill. Horinger lies in the Tumochuan Plain area at the southern foot of the Yin Mountains, where the nomadic and farming ways of life have long coexisted. Its papercutting therefore combines the boldness of the grassland with the refinement of the Central Plains. Local practitioners are mostly rural women; elders in a household lead the younger generation in learning to cut, and the subject matter of the works changes with the agricultural seasons and festivals.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

With the development of society, people's modes of production and life are changing rapidly. The environment for the survival of Horinger papercutting has deteriorated sharply, inheritors are scarce, and strengthened protection is urgently needed. Duan Jianjun (recorded in the official archives of an affiliated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1973, native of Horinger County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A master of arts and crafts of Inner Mongolia. From childhood he learned papercutting from his aunt Duan Liannü. His works "Golden Lotus and Deer," "Deer-Headed Flower," "Paired Dogs and the Tree of Life," and "Eagle Treading on a Rabbit" embody the ancient northern steppe peoples' worship of life, fertility, and totems, bearing distinct regional cultural characteristics and important historical and literary value. In cutting, he emphasizes the overall momentum of the form: the shears move in flowing turns, rising and falling in cadence, supple yet forceful, aptly capturing the spirit of the depicted objects and giving them an artistic soul, so that they seem ready to step out of the paper. Representative works include "Spring Arrives on the Grassland," "Grassland Eagle," and "Pride of the Grassland." Representative inheritor of the papercutting (Horinger papercutting) project in the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. He is committed to the work of rescuing, excavating, and protecting original-style papercutting art and precious surviving papercutting works.

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 ↗