Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

According to documents of the Ming and Qing dynasties, paper cutting was prevalent among the people of Tonglu and was applied to local folk activities.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Tonglu paper cutting is a traditional folk art in which folk artists in Tonglu County, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, use scissors or carving knives to cut or carve various patterns of flowers, melons and fruits, figures, animals, and scenery on red report paper, maobian paper, wax-glossy paper, and xuan paper, for use in folk customs such as festival blessings, weddings, and funerals. In addition, there are folk records of every household cutting window flowers and pasting door-god images. According to research, the window flowers, door panels, and 'cow-leg' wood carvings on the ancient buildings of Shen'ao Village, Dipu Village, and other places in Tonglu County were all carved from paper-cutting templates. Paper-cutting artists use exquisite cutting techniques to produce various round bouquet flowers (tuanhua), with exquisite compositions combining thickness and fineness, embodying the character of Tonglu paper cutting: 'elegance revealed within fullness, exquisite and translucent, plain and elegant, reservedly splendid.' Tonglu paper cutting has rich folk character and broad mass participation, and it integrates practicality and ornamental value. Besides being used for window flowers, door pastings, and other traditional folk activities, it is also closely connected with local folk wood carving and still plays an important role in wood carving today.

Substance with refinement

Tonglu cutters produce round medallions of fine composition, coarse and fine strokes together, achieving substance with refinement, plainness with hidden richness.

Woodcarving and cutting templates in Shen'ao and Dipu

The window, door-panel and bracket carvings of Shen'ao and Dipu were carved from paper-cutting templates, the two crafts long sharing designs.

Red press paper, deckle-edged and glazed papers

With scissors or knife, flowers, fruit, figures, animals and landscapes are cut from red, deckle-edged, glazed and xuan papers for festivals and ceremonies.

Window, lantern and wedding flowers

Its common formats, used at festivals and family ceremonies and embodying the life of Jiangnan households.

Mother-to-daughter lineage

Transmitted communally, mostly mother to daughter and mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, its traceable lineage reaches back to the late Qing and early Republic.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The fashion for paper cutting is relatively strong in western Zhejiang Province, and Tonglu County is one of the representative areas; centered on Tonglu county town, it is distributed throughout the villages of the county. Tonglu paper cutting is directly continuous with local folk activities; people use paper cutting as a form of expression to convey their ideals and wishes. Paper cutting constitutes an inseparable part of folk life and has rich folk character and broad mass participation. Paper-cutting artists of successive generations continuously explored the laws of the local traditional art of paper cutting, enabling Tonglu paper cutting to be well preserved.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Tonglu paper cutting is transmitted mainly in groups; the currently verifiable transmission lineage can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China period. Transmission is mostly between mothers and daughters and mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. Over the years, Tonglu County has adopted a series of protective measures: compiling and publishing collections of paper-cutting works, building a number of venues for transmission and dissemination, and promoting the productive protection of paper cutting. The groups practicing and learning Tonglu paper cutting have grown continuously, and a number of outstanding young and middle-aged paper-cutting artists have emerged. The window flowers, lantern flowers, and festive flowers of Tonglu paper cutting reflect the life and customs of the people south of the Yangtze and have high value for folk custom research. Tonglu paper cutting is filled with people's yearning for a harmonious society and happy life and with all kinds of good wishes; it is a portrayal of paper-cutting artists' love of life and their ingenious hands, and it fully demonstrates social-cultural, folk-humanistic, and artistic-aesthetic value.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Paper-cutting (Tonglu, Zhejiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗