Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Ruichang, known in ancient times as Jiangzhou, lies on the south bank of the Yangtze River at the western foot of Mount Lu. A corridor for north-south traffic and migration, it saw papercutting passed down from generation to generation among local rural women alongside marriage, New Year and sacrificial customs; in recent centuries it was transmitted chiefly within families. From the Qing dynasty to the Republican era, rural women in Ruichang cut patterns for use in embroidery: the designs on shoe uppers, aprons, bed-curtain edges and pillow ends were mostly first cut in paper as templates. Cutting patterns thus became a measure of a woman's manual dexterity. In 1947, Liu Shiying of Ruichang began learning papercutting from her aunt. At ten she could already cut patterns for embroidered shoe uppers, and by fourteen she was well known locally, able to cut images impromptu from what she saw and thought without drafting them first.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Ruichang lies in northern Jiangxi on the south bank of the Yangtze River, at a hub where northern and southern cultures meet. Ruichang papercutting blends the different characteristics of north and south into its own distinctive style: it possesses both the delicate beauty of fine, graceful and precise work and the robust beauty of plain, solid and bold form, with yin and yang complementing each other, emptiness and fullness giving birth to one another, firmness and softness held in balance — a manner all its own. The subjects of Ruichang papercutting are highly individual; the pairing and union of yin and yang are their most common themes. In composition, Ruichang papercutting often breaks through limits of time and space, using a non-hollow-cut technique that people ordinarily would not or dare not employ to produce artistic effects that are now blurred, now clear, revealing a reserved, hidden grace and a hazy, mysterious quality.

The non-openwork cutting method

Ruichang cutters often break the bounds of space and time with a rarely used non-openwork method, producing an image that is now blurred, now clear.

Pairing yin and yang shapes

The most individual theme of Ruichang cutting: paired yin and yang motifs interlocking to create complementary solid and void.

Slack Season, Spring Ploughing

Two representative works by Liu Shiying on rural farming life, both collected by the China Agricultural Exhibition Hall.

Snowflake-motif cuttings

A strand of its own within Ruichang cutting; Liu Shiying's snowflake pieces entered the Chinese Snowflake Paper-cutting Collection and were shown in Texas.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Ruichang papercutting is transmitted throughout the towns and countryside of Ruichang in Jiangxi Province and extends into the urban districts of Jiujiang. Its main mode of transmission is teaching between mother and daughter or mother-in-law and daughter-in-law within the family, supplemented by mutual learning among neighbours and school training; styles are diverse, with few unified conventions. Liu Shiying's works mostly depict flowers, birds, fish and insects, with full compositions, flowing lines and brisk cutting. Her representative works "Leisure in the Slack Farming Season" (Nongxian Shijie) and "Spring Ploughing" (Chungeng Tu) are held in the collection of the China Agricultural Exposition Museum, and she also taught at the papercutting training class of Jiujiang No. 11 Middle School, extending the influence of Ruichang papercutting into the urban districts of Jiujiang.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The papercutting art transmitted in the Ruichang area of Jiangxi Province, developed through the inheritance of folk artists of successive generations, has formed a distinctive style and has now become a fairly influential category of folk art nationwide. Ruichang papercutting is transmitted mainly among rural women and has continued by family inheritance to the present, preserving quite completely the authentic flavour of the ancient folk papercutting tradition and embodying distinct value for historical and folk-art research. Under the impact of the market economy and the influence of outside cultures, Ruichang's traditional folk customs are gradually declining, the environment in which Ruichang papercutting survives has changed, and it faces the danger of dying out; if it is not rescued in time, the consequences are grave. Liu Shiying (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in August 1935, native of Ruichang City, Jiangxi Province. In 1947 she learned papercutting from her aunt; at ten she cut patterns for embroidered shoe uppers, and by fourteen she was already well known locally. Through her interest and long years of practice her skill grew ever more refined, and she could cut lifelike images from what she saw and thought, without drafting them first. Her works mostly depict the flowers, birds, fish and insects of everyday life, with full compositions, flowing lines and brisk cutting, and are deeply loved by the public. Her representative works "Leisure in the Slack Farming Season" (Nongxian Shijie) and "Spring Ploughing" (Chungeng Tu) are held in the collection of the China Agricultural Exposition Museum. Her works have been exhibited in Texas, USA, and elsewhere. Her snowflake-themed works were selected for the Collection of Chinese Snowflake Papercuts. For decades she has actively engaged in transmission activities, teaching at the papercutting training class of Jiujiang No. 11 Middle School and elsewhere. She is a representative inheritor of Papercutting (Ruichang Papercutting), an intangible cultural heritage project of the third national-level batch.

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 ↗