Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Yanchuan paper cutting is one of the distinctive folk arts found within Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province. It has a long history; its origins are connected with local folk customs of praying for blessings and driving away misfortune, and it was also widely used in folk belief and sacrificial activities. By the 1990s, the number of local paper-cutting makers had reached more than 15,000. Its leading figures included Gao Fenglian, Guo Rulin, Gao Hexiao, Liu Jieqiong, Liu Xiaojuan, and Yuan Suihua.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Yanchuan paper cutting is a folk art created mainly by women, reflecting a great variety of social customs and family life. Its techniques of expression include the freehand (xieyi) and the realistic (xieshi) styles, which are often related to the character of the maker. Subjects covered by Yanchuan paper cutting include the images of deities and Buddhas, auspicious and festive themes, farm work, seasonal customs, human figures, stories, birds and beasts, spinning and weaving, landscapes and flowers, and reproduction and fertility. They are commonly presented in such forms as window flowers, wall flowers, ceiling flowers, lantern flowers, and ceremonial flowers, with simple compositions, tight structures, and clear distinctions between primary and secondary elements. The images depicted have a plain and simple modeling; their outer contours are either square or round, and the lines are thick and strong, which makes them easy to cut with scissors as well as convenient for pasting and copying. They possess a rugged, vigorous, and exuberant local style.

Gao Fenglian's large-scale works

Born in Yanchuan in 1936, Gao Fenglian began creating in 1986 and cuts boldly and without hesitation, even on works several metres long.

Soul of the Great River, three generations of cutting

Her three-generation exhibition Soul of the Great River was held at the National Art Museum, and over two hundred of her works entered public collections.

Window, wall, ceiling and ceremonial flowers

Its formats: window, wall, ceiling, lantern and ceremonial flowers, simple in image, tightly structured and clearly ranked.

Freehand and realistic approaches

Two approaches, freehand and realistic, often matching the maker's temperament; forms are plain, outlines square or round, lines thick for easy cutting and copying.

Yanchuan's community of cutters

By the 1990s Yanchuan counted over fifteen thousand cutters, among them Gao Fenglian, Guo Rulin, Gao Hexiao, Liu Jieqiong, Liu Xiaojuan and Yuan Suihua.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Yanchuan paper cutting is widely used in local social life; festivals, weddings, and funerals could never do without paper cutting. Among the local people, paper cutting and housework are important ways for working women to display their talents. A local folk proverb says: 'When a daughter is born, she should be skillful — pomegranate and peony patterns cut offhand.'

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Today, Yanchuan paper cutting is on the verge of having no successors due to the impact of modern civilization, and rescue and protection work is needed. Gao Fenglian (from the official records of the associated inheritor): Specially appointed researcher of folk art creation at the Chinese National Academy of Arts. Influenced by her grandmother and mother, she began learning to cut flower and plant patterns at the age of 10, and started paper-cutting creation in 1986. Her paper cuttings come naturally and effortlessly; even when cutting monumental works several meters long, she still cut with complete confidence, in bold, sweeping strokes, finishing everything in one go. Her personal experience of hardship and her tenacious, optimistic character injected a continuous flow of energy and inspiration into her creations. Her works feature exaggerated and transformed forms; they are rugged, bold, richly decorative, and distinctly styled, with content mostly reflecting humanity's primitive and plain understanding of life and the consciousness of reproduction. Female, Han ethnicity, born in February 1936, died in January 2017, a native of Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province. Representative inheritor of the paper cutting (Yanchuan paper cutting) project of the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. She won more than fifty awards at home and abroad, and once held the exhibition 'Soul of the Great River: Three Generations of Gao Fenglian's Paper-Cutting Art' at the National Art Museum of China; more than two hundred of her paper-cutting works are held in the collections of the National Art Museum of China and other institutions.

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 ↗