Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Xingan, called Xin'gan in ancient times, lies in the middle reaches of the Gan River and is one of the counties established earliest in Jiangxi; paper cutting was transmitted for a long time in dependence on local New Year festivals, weddings, and funeral customs. Women's apron-skirt (lanqun) patterns, shoe patterns, and head-cover patterns; decorations for door curtains and children's hats; the colored festoons used at Spring Festival; and the spirit houses, longevity shoes, ghost clothes, and paper money used at funerals — all had their patterns and forms produced by paper cutting. The paper used is bright red and deep green, serving to set off a festive and lively atmosphere. Xingan paper cutting is built mainly on line modeling, with simple, plain imagery; its ornaments are directly descended from the patterns on Shang dynasty bronzes and jade objects unearthed at Dayangzhou in Xingan, and it has a strong local character. The transmission of Xingan paper cutting is mostly completed within the household, carried on through "family transmission" or "mutual teaching" among neighbors, without specialized trade organizations or workshops.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Xingan paper cutting is mostly used to adorn living rooms, doors, and windows, or in every aspect of people's lives such as weddings, celebrations, New Year festivals, and funerals — for example women's apron-skirt patterns, shoe patterns, and head-cover patterns, door curtains, children's hats, and mouth-strap (koujia) patterns, the colored festoons used at Spring Festival, and the spirit houses, longevity shoes, ghost clothes, and paper money used at funerals. The paper used is bright red and deep green, setting off a festive and lively atmosphere and conveying good wishes for fortune, prosperity, smoothness, and flourishing, thereby enriching and beautifying life. The subjects chosen are wide-ranging: exotic flowers and rare plants, domestic animals and precious birds, allusions to historical figures and folk legends, scenes of production, daily life, and labor, as well as content reflecting current affairs and matters of family and state. When creating, dexterous paper-cutting artists use a single pair of scissors and a few sheets of colored paper, relying on their understanding of life, to cut works that are lively, rich in content, and full of the flavor of daily life; whatever they wish to cut, they cut into that form, entirely through the artist's free invention. Xingan paper cutting is a product of agrarian civilization; with the progress of social modernization, it faces problems such as a lack of successors and requires attention.

Apron, shoe and head-cover flowers

Costume patterns: apron flowers, shoe flowers, head covers, and ornaments for door curtains, children's caps and mouth guards.

Coloured curtains for the New Year

At the New Year coloured paper curtains are pasted up, their reds and greens carrying wishes for blessing, wealth, smoothness and prosperity.

Spirit house, burial shoes and ghost clothes

Funerary forms — the spirit house, burial shoes, ghost garments and paper money — cut to fit local mourning ritual.

Echoing Shang bronze ornament

Linear, spare and plain, Xingan cutting traces its ornament to the Shang bronzes and jades unearthed locally, layering ancient motifs onto farming life.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Xingan paper cutting is mainly transmitted within Xingan County, Jiangxi Province, and is a traditional folk art with a long history there. Xingan paper cutting is built mainly on line modeling, with simple, plain imagery; its ornaments are directly descended from the patterns on Shang dynasty bronze and jade artifacts unearthed in Xingan, and it has a strong local character.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Among the people of Xingan, widely transmitted paper cutting has been passed on and developed through "family transmission" or "mutual teaching." The subjects and uses of Xingan paper cutting are closely connected with local farming activities and seasonal festivals: spring plowing, marriage, birthday celebrations, and funeral rites each have their corresponding patterns and papers — red paper for festive occasions, white paper for funerals, and colored paper for door curtains and festoons; the cut patterns are mostly joined in continuous designs that must be unfolded as they are cut, and one can read in them the changing of the four seasons and the yearly fortunes of a farming household.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Paper-cutting (Xingan, Jiangxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗