Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

In 1935 the Echeng Paper-Pattern Cutting Union was established, headed by Dai Hansheng and Liao Yunpeng, with membership reaching 150; the activities of paper-cutting artists extended across five surrounding provinces, and a fairly large-scale paper-cutting industry took shape over the broad region centered on Ezhou.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Carved-flower paper cutting, popular in Ezhou, Hubei Province, is a traditional folk decorative art; the early Wuchang County Gazetteer already contains records of the development of carved-flower paper cutting during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty. In 1885 a carved-flower paper-cutting industry began to form in Echeng, with masters taking apprentices and specializing in the making and sale of paper patterns. Ezhou carved-flower paper-cutting artists carried pattern boxes on their backs and shook peddlers' drums in hand as they went from village to village and door to door selling "patterns" (huayang). Ezhou carved-flower paper cutting is an important carrier of local folk customs in Hubei; its subjects and content involve every aspect of life and display distinct regional characteristics. These carved-flower paper cuts mainly include such varieties as cap patterns, shoe patterns, slipper patterns, sock-sole patterns, fastening-strap patterns, vest patterns, pocket patterns, bib patterns, pillow patterns, and bed-curtain border patterns; both knife and scissors are used in their making, and the finished works have balanced compositions, a fluent, delicate, and vividly lifelike style, combining practicality and decoration in one. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, mutual-aid groups for carved-flower paper cutting were established in Yanji, Huarong, and other places known as "pattern nests" (huayang wozi), and more than two thousand paper-cut patterns were successively created. In recent years, Ezhou's carved-flower paper-cutting artists have grown old, and very few of them remain alive.

Hat, shoe and bed-curtain flowers

Its range: hat, shoe, slipper, sock-sole, button-strap, vest, bib, pillow and bed-curtain flowers, mostly embroidery patterns, made with both knife and scissors.

The pattern chest and the pedlar's drum

A cutter's kit: a wooden chest of patterns on the back and a pedlar's drum in hand, going house to house to supply embroidery models.

Every pattern has a meaning, every meaning is auspicious

In Zhang Jiazhong's work relief lines connect and intaglio lines break, nothing falls away in a thousand cuts, and every plain-looking pattern carries an auspicious sense.

The Wuchang gazetteer and the trade of 1885

The old Wuchang gazetteer records the craft in the Guangxu reign; by 1885 Echeng had a trade of apprentices making and selling patterns, turning motifs into merchandise.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Ezhou carved-flower paper cutting is centered on the ancient city of Echeng (today's urban district of Ezhou City), with artists gathered in townships such as Yanji and Huarong — places people in former times called "pattern nests." Artists carried pattern boxes on their backs and shook peddlers' drums as they went from village to village selling patterns, their activities extending across five surrounding provinces; in 1935 the Echeng Paper-Pattern Cutting Union was established, headed by Dai Hansheng and Liao Yunpeng, with membership reaching 150, forming a fairly large-scale paper-cutting industry. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, mutual-aid groups for carved-flower paper cutting were established in Yanji, Huarong, and other places, successively creating more than two thousand paper-cut patterns; Zhang Jiazhong, born in July 1933 in Echeng County, kept a complete set of pattern tools and pattern boxes intact, and his works are held in the collections of the Chinese National Academy of Arts and the Ezhou City Museum.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

This ancient flower of folk art, carved-flower paper cutting, is withering day by day and is nearly lost; protection is urgently needed. Zhang Jiazhong (recorded in the official inheritor archive): His works are rich in subject matter and ingeniously conceived; using both knife and scissors, the lines of his positive patterns stay connected while the lines of his negative patterns are cut apart — a thousand cuts and myriad snips never letting the sheet fall — and the patterns, plain in manner, are rich in layered variation, pursuing the auspicious ideal that "every picture must carry meaning, and every meaning must be auspicious." For many years he kept a complete set of pattern tools and pattern boxes intact, and the traditional pattern works he produced are held in the collections of the Chinese National Academy of Arts and the Ezhou City Museum. Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1933, died in May 2011, from Echeng County, Hubei Province. He was a representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Paper Cutting (Ezhou Carved-Flower Paper Cutting). In 2011 he was invited to take part in the spring welcoming exhibition of one hundred representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage projects, held by the Ministry of Culture and the Beijing Municipal Government.

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 ↗