Paper-cutting · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

The emergence of Hui paper cutting in Ningxia is tied to the everyday needlework of Hui women. From childhood, at the head of the kang (the heated brick bed) and by the window, they learned paper cutting and embroidery from their mothers and mothers-in-law. For a long time paper cutting served as the base pattern for embroidered articles such as shoes and socks, garments and trousers, pillow ends, and fragrant pouches, while window flowers, festive flowers, and appliqué paper cuttings covered the doors, windows, kang platforms, and walls of the home.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Hui paper cutting in the Ningxia region is a folk art that arose alongside Hui embroidery and costume. In traditional society, local Hui women learned needlework such as paper cutting and embroidery from childhood. At the head of the kang and by the window, mothers taught daughters and mothers-in-law passed the skill on to daughters-in-law; paper cutting was transmitted from generation to generation and spread widely through mutual teaching and learning among neighbors, fellow villagers, and sisters. Hui paper cutting in the Ningxia region is commonly used as the embroidery base patterns for shoes and socks, garments and trousers, pillow ends, and pouches; decorative paper cuttings such as window flowers, festive flowers, and appliqué flowers can be seen everywhere; Hui women also like to give their own paper cuttings as gifts to relatives and friends at festivals and on happy occasions. They mostly choose flowers, birds, and plants; gentle animals closely tied to Hui life such as cattle, sheep, and chickens; and everyday objects such as the ablution kettle (tangping) and the covered tea bowl (gaiwan), cutting out the mountains, rivers, and plants of their homeland to express their inner feelings and pin their longing for a better life. Influenced by Islamic belief and custom, Hui paper cutting in the Ningxia region does not cut ugly or fierce animals, and treats the eyes of human figures in a restrained, understated manner. Hui paper cutting in the Ningxia region emphasizes a realist approach that cuts out the true, objective appearance of things, combined with clever composition and delicate decoration; Arabic-script patterns are often ingeniously worked into the designs. Red is the dominant color of the paper cutting, but Muslim-associated colors such as green and white are also used, reflecting the plain, restrained, and quiet national character of the Hui people and expressing Hui women's understanding of their own ethnic culture and their appreciation of and pursuit of beauty. The younger generation of Hui women also keeps pace with contemporary needs, combining traditional paper-cutting technique with modern expressive methods to create paper-cutting works with distinct folk characteristics. Hui paper cutting in the Ningxia region is relatively widespread and in a comparatively good state of survival. As paper-cutting artists compare notes and exchange techniques, paper cutting has become a bond of exchange and harmonious coexistence among ethnic groups, and a vivid practice of cultural integration and of fostering a strong sense of community among the Chinese nation.

Ewers, covered bowls, cattle and sheep

Hui cutting favours flowers and plants, gentle animals such as cattle, sheep and fowl, and everyday objects like the washing ewer and covered bowl.

Avoiding fierce beasts and softening eyes

Under Islamic belief and custom, Ningxia Hui cutting avoids ugly or fierce animals and treats the eyes of human figures with restraint.

Arabic script woven into the design

Hui work favours realistic rendering with ingenious layout and fine ornament, often working Arabic script into the composition.

Red, green and white

Red predominates, but green and white also appear, matching a plain, restrained and quiet temperament.

Tian Yanlan's Hui subjects

Born in Tongxin in 1978, Tian Yanlan portrays Hui figures and life with mosques, covered bowls and ewers, and has founded research, gallery and cooperative bodies for the craft.

Fu Zhaoe's rapid portrait cutting

Born in Haiyuan in 1960, Fu Zhaoe trained from the age of five and can cut a portrait at speed, her work joining the plainness of New Year prints with caricature's distortion.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Hui paper cutting in the Ningxia region is an important means by which Hui women record folk customs, reflect their own aesthetic ideas, and express their emotional attachments. It both inherits the essence of traditional paper cutting and embodies ethnic and regional cultural elements, enriching the variety of folk paper cutting in China.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is one of the areas where Hui paper cutting is distributed; this folk art form, with Hui women as the main bearers of the tradition, is a vivid witness to the cultural integration of the Hui and Han peoples. Hui paper cutting in the Ningxia region carries on the bold, rugged character and concise modeling of northern paper cutting, continues the Han paper-cutting tradition of themes based on homophonic symbolism, and incorporates Islamic cultural elements; through the art of paper cutting it reflects Hui folk customs, giving traditional paper cutting a Ningxia character and Hui distinctiveness. In a number of counties there are relatively concentrated communities of inheritors, and among the towns and villages there is no shortage of skilled paper-cutting masters. Tian Yanlan (recorded in the official archives of associated inheritors): Female; Hui; born in August 1978; from Tongxin County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. At the age of five she began learning paper cutting from her mother, and by the age of ten she had mastered the technique. She subsequently studied in the fine arts program of Wuzhong Normal College, the fine arts department of Ningxia University, and the advanced seminar on folk paper cutting at Nanjing University. Her works mostly depict Hui figures and social life, drawing on elements of Hui life such as mosques, gaiwan tea bowls, and tangping kettles; the cutting is delicate, the lines fluent, the modeling concise, and the works have both ethnic character and a modern feel. She has successively established a Hui paper cutting research and protection center, a Hui paper cutting art museum, and a Hui paper cutting cooperative, dedicating herself to the excavation, documentation, and transmission of Hui paper cutting in Ningxia. She is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Paper Cutting (Hui Paper Cutting). Her works have been exhibited and have won prizes on many occasions; she has held solo exhibitions in Wuzhong, Yinchuan, and elsewhere, and has traveled repeatedly to the United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, Australia, Egypt, Russia, and other countries to exchange and promote the art of Hui paper cutting. Fu Zhao'e (recorded in the official archives of associated inheritors): Female; Han; born in May 1960; from Haiyuan County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. From the age of five she learned paper cutting from her mother, and over several decades of persistent creative practice she developed the remarkable skill of cutting portraits rapidly. Her works have both the simplicity and vigor of New Year pictures and peasant painting, and the exaggeration, distortion, and symbolism characteristic of cartooning. She has held two solo paper-cutting exhibitions, in 1997 and 2016, and has published collections including Fu Zhao'e's Paper Cuttings, How to Learn Paper Cutting, and Fu Zhao'e's Paper Cuttings (in the series Masters of Contemporary Chinese Paper-Cutting Inheritance). She is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Paper Cutting (Hui Paper Cutting). At the Zhenbeibu Western Film City she has opened the Fu Zhao'e Paper-Cutting Studio, where she cuts paper for visitors on the spot, promotes Ningxia folk paper cutting, and trains inheritors.

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 ↗