Paper cut (Yueqing fine grain paper cutting)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: paper cut

Applicant: Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province

Project No.: 315

Project No.: Ⅶ - 16

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Yueqing Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Brief introduction of Yueqing fine grain paper cutting

Applicant: Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province

Yueqing City is located in the southeast coast of Zhejiang Province. Yueqing fine grain paper carving is a unique local art, mainly concentrated in Siqian village and houheng village of Xiangyang Town, Dongcai village of beibaixiang Town, Lecheng Town, Liushi town and wengyang town.

Yueqing paper-cut originated from Yueqing folk paper-cut "Dragon Boat flower", has a history of more than 700 years. According to the records of Yueqing county annals, during the Dade period of the Yuan Dynasty, "Shengge was performed in the community and ribbon cutting was performed in the thoroughfares for the public to enjoy and enjoy together with the people.". The "ribbon cutting" here is paper cutting. Every year on the 15th of the first month, there are dragon boat lantern cruises in Yueqing countryside. Dragon Boat paper binding and fine grain paper carving are the basic craft and decoration means of dragon boat lamp. In the early stage, the fine grain paper carving on Dragon Boat lamp was a simple geometric pattern, and later developed into flowers, birds and animals, mountains and rivers, opera characters, fairy tales and other contents. The representative works include nine lions, eight pointed double fish and so on. The modern inheritors of Yueqing fine grain paper carving include Lin Bangdong, Lin shunkui, Chen Yuhua, Zheng Yuanxun, Lu Faliang, etc.

Yueqing fine grain paper cutting knife is delicate, straight and powerful, the pattern is as fine as hair, the work is not greasy, the fiber is not complicated, and the expressive force is very rich. One of its most outstanding features is its fineness. In the early "Dragon Boat flower" carving paper, the thinnest one can carve 52 lines on one inch square paper. It takes more than ten days to carve a piece of fine grain paper with a big bowl mouth, which is very labor-consuming. Fine grain paper-cut technology enables various folk patterns to be detailed and abundant on several centimeter square paper, which makes Yueqing fine grain paper-cut known as "the representative of Nanzong in Chinese paper-cut".

Fine grain paper carving is very difficult and difficult to master in a short time. Generally, it takes decades of carving to create exquisite works. In the past two decades, with the vigorous rise of Wenzhou Light Industry, the production of paper-cut crafts in Yueqing City has been impacted and declined. Many people abandon art and go into business. The old artists are old and weak, and there is no successor.