Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

The origins of Miao paper cutting in Jianhe are linked to the migration history of Miao ancestors in the Qingshui River valley; the section "Crossing Mountains and Rivers" in the Miao Ancient Songs, sung by generations of Miao people in southeastern Guizhou, already contains descriptions of paper cutting. Paper cutting has long served two functions in Miao society: first, providing pattern models for embroidery — the cut patterns are applied to cloth and then embroidered; second, use in sacrifices and ceremonies — images sharing heads or bodies, such as two-headed dragons, two-headed birds, two-headed snakes, and two-bodied single-headed dragons, derive from shamanic rites in the Guzang Festival ("eating the communal ox").

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Miao paper cutting is commonly known as "Miao flower paper," "cut flowers," and "embroidery paper"; in the Miao language it is called "xigeigang" and "xigeibang," which in Chinese mean "animal paper cutting" and "flower paper cutting." Gedong-type paper cutting has full compositions and rich pictorial content, with motifs mostly of animals, flowers, and figures, including many figures from myth and legend; Xinmin- and Xinhe-type paper cutting is relatively more fluid in composition, with motifs mostly of flowers, birds, and butterflies from the natural world, in exceptionally vivid forms. Miao paper cutting of Jianhe serves as the base pattern and model for Miao embroidery in places such as Gedong, Censong, Xinmin, and Xinhe; after this second stage of working, its artistry is enriched and extended in the embroidery. In this sense, paper cutting is also an important component of Miao embroidery and costume. As the number of local women from Jianhe going out to work has increased year by year, the number of people drawing and making Miao paper cutting has steadily declined; mostly it is older women who remain at home engaged in paper cutting. With the progress of the times and the rapid development of science and technology, people can use the relatively simple method of photocopying embroidery patterns with a copier, so paper cutting's role as a pattern model has gradually diminished. At the same time, the patterns and motifs of paper cutting have mutated, and the cultural meanings of traditional motifs are being forgotten by people in Miao areas.

The Gedong type

One manner of Miao cutting: full composition and rich content, with animals, flowers and figures, including figures from myth.

The Xinmin and Xinhe type

The other manner: freer in composition, mostly natural flowers, birds and butterflies, unusually lively in form.

Pattern paper as embroidery draft

Jianhe cutting supplies the drafts for embroidery in Gedong, Censong, Xinmin and Xinhe; pasted to cloth, the pattern is stitched and its art extended in the needlework.

Jiang Yang Shoots the Sun, Butterfly Mother

Jiang Wenying's myth-based works; Jiang Yang Shoots the Sun entered the volume Miao Paper-cutting, while others renewed traditional themes.

Jiang Wenying's transmission work

Born in 1971, Jiang Wenying learned from her mother at nine and mastered the craft by thirteen; she founded a paper-cutting art centre and has taken over three hundred pupils.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Miao paper cutting transmitted in Jianhe County, Guizhou Province, can be divided into two types — the Gedong type and the Xinmin and Xinhe type — whose styles differ from one another. Miao paper cutting has a long history: the section "Crossing Mountains and Rivers" in the Miao Ancient Songs, sung by generations of Miao people in southeastern Guizhou, already contains descriptions of paper cutting.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

It is precious visual material for studying the history and customs of the Miao in the upper Qingshui River region of Jianhe County; the frequently appearing images sharing heads and bodies — two-headed dragons, two-headed birds, two-headed snakes, and two-bodied single-headed dragons — are in fact an extension of a shamanic rite in the Miao Guzang Festival ("eating the communal ox"), and are of great value for historical and ethnological research. Miao paper cutting has, almost imperceptibly, fallen into an endangered state and urgently needs protection and transmission. Jiang Wenying (recorded in the official inheritor archive): Female, Miao ethnicity, born in July 1971, from Jianhe County, Guizhou Province. From the age of nine she learned paper cutting from her mother, and by the age of thirteen had mastered Miao paper-cutting technique; the embroidery patterns she cut are vivid and beautiful. Her work "Jiangyang Shoots the Sun" was included in the book Miao Paper Cutting, and a series of works on Miao myth and legend themes — "Jiangyang Creates Humanity," "Butterfly Mother," and "Screw Wife" — boldly innovate on a traditional basis and are deeply loved by local people. She is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Paper Cutting (Miao Paper Cutting). After graduating from university she devoted herself wholeheartedly to the transmission and protection of Miao paper cutting, founding the Miao Paper Cutting Art Garden and taking in more than three hundred apprentices in all; she serves as president of the county Women's Federation's Women's Ethnic Handicraft Industry Association, leading more than one thousand women onto a path out of poverty and toward prosperity through paper cutting.

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 ↗