Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

Jingle County lies at the headwaters of the Fen River in northwestern Shanxi. Mountains and hills are spread throughout the county, and the styles of paper cutting are directly related to the local layout of dwellings: kang surrounds, kitchen stove tops, and window lattices are the main positions for pasted flowers, hence the names 'wall-surround flower' and 'stove-top flower.' The content of the paper cutting mostly draws on opera stories, folk legends, the hundred affairs of rural life, and auspicious sayings. Representative works such as 'Grandfather Seeing Off His Nephew,' 'Hawk Grasping Rabbit,' and 'Pressing Buckwheat Noodles' all take the daily production and life of northwestern Shanxi as their subject matter. Since the mid-Qing Dynasty, Jingle paper cutting has been collectively transmitted among the women of local communities; there was also a line of heart-to-hand transmission by elder women within families, forming a transmission network interweaving mothers and daughters, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, and mutual learning among neighbors.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Jingle paper cutting is created using paper as the raw material and scissors as tools. It is a traditional folk paper-cutting art commonly used in folk activities and daily life such as the New Year and festivals, weddings, moving into a new home, temple fairs and markets, first birthdays and full-month celebrations for infants, and visiting relatives and friends; it is popular in Jingle County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province. Jingle paper cutting is particularly renowned for its wall flowers. Wall flowers are pasted on kang surrounds or stove tops, commonly known as 'wall-surround flowers' and 'stove-top flowers.' They come in three types: single pieces, grouped flowers, and sets of flowers. Their size may be cut freely, and their subjects are mostly opera stories, folk legends, the hundred affairs of rural life, and auspicious sayings. Major representative works include 'Grandfather Seeing Off His Nephew,' 'Hawk Grasping Rabbit,' and 'Pressing Buckwheat Noodles.' Jingle paper cutting is basically monochrome (mostly red); its distinctive feature is that figures' faces are carved in negative-line (yin) style while the other parts are carved in positive-line (yang) style. It mainly employs the openwork techniques of lines, round holes, and saw-tooth patterns, with short, thick lines and compact connections, expressing the forms and textures of various objects. The expressive vocabulary of Jingle paper cutting also includes T-shaped patterns, coin patterns, wheel patterns, flower-core patterns, and brick-laying patterns; when creating, artists follow the shapes as they come and give free play to their ideas, which on the one hand achieves a decorative effect and on the other serves to moderate rhythm and express sentiment. The plain, simple images and rugged lines of Jingle paper cutting are inseparable from the geographical environment of Jingle County, situated on the plateau of northwestern Shanxi with mountains and hills throughout, and from its simple, honest humanistic and social environment. With faces in negative-line style and clothing in positive-line style, bold lines, concise modeling, and exaggerated forms and colors, Jingle paper cutting largely preserves the primitive interest of northwestern Shanxi's rusticity, roughness, and wildness — rough yet full of feeling, wild yet full of flavor; though rustic, it is finely wrought, and its style is unique. With the process of urbanization, traditional ways of life have changed, and the venues for applying Jingle paper cutting have gradually decreased. Jingle paper cutting adorns the daily living spaces of the people, bringing them spiritual satisfaction and emotional comfort; it expresses the people's simple, auspicious wishes and ideals, and is rich in the interest of life.

Wall flowers for the kang border and stove

Jingyue excels in wall flowers pasted on the kang border or stove, in single, grouped and matched sets, sized freely.

Faces in intaglio, bodies in relief

Mostly monochrome, Jingyue work cuts faces in intaglio and everything else in relief, using lines, round holes and saw-tooth motifs in short, sturdy, tightly joined strokes.

T-motifs and coin motifs

Its vocabulary also includes T-shapes, coin, wheel, stamen and brick-bond motifs, freely adapted to give ornament and to pace and colour the composition.

Grandfather and Grandson, Eagle Grabbing a Rabbit, Pinching Bean Noodles

Its chief representative works, drawn directly from the farming and household scenes of north-western Shanxi.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Jingle paper cutting mostly draws its materials from the people's daily life and folk customs. It is generally divided into two types: window flowers and wall flowers. Window flowers are generally pasted in the very center of the window lattice, and there are also round flowers echoed by corner flowers; their size is determined by the shape and size of the window lattice, and their content is mainly finely wrought flowers and plants symbolizing auspiciousness. Under the efforts of all parties locally, through measures such as supporting inheritors in teaching apprentices and carrying out surveys and documentation, Jingle paper cutting has been able to continue.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The transmission lineage of Jingle paper cutting can be traced back to the mid-Qing Dynasty at the earliest, transmitted collectively among the women of local communities. There is also family transmission, passed from hand to heart by elder women to later generations. At the same time, Jingle paper cutting reflects the production and lifestyle of the people of northwestern Shanxi. Accompanying rich folk activities and closely connected with the people's daily life, it provides rich material for the study of mass psychology, folk art, and regional culture, and thus has social and cultural value.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Paper-cutting (Jingle, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗