Paper cut (Xiaogan carved paper cut)

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

Applicant: Xiaonan District, Xiaogan City, Hubei Province

Project No.: 315

Project No.: Ⅶ - 16

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Hubei Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Xiaonan District, Xiaogan City, Hubei Province

Protection unit: Xiaonan District Cultural Center

Brief introduction of paper cutting (Xiaogan carved paper cutting)

Applicant: Xiaonan District, Xiaogan City, Hubei Province

Xiaogan City, located in the northeast of Hubei Province, is one of the birthplaces of Chu culture. The long history, special environment and good folk customs together create the profound cultural heritage of Xiaogan, and give birth to Xiaogan carving and paper cutting, a treasure of folk art in Jingchu.

The history of Xiaogan paper-cut can be traced back to the Western Jin Dynasty. At that time, the paper-cut fashion of Xiaogan had been closely combined with folk customs, and the local people were used to "human day paper-cut or gold foil carving". In the Ming Dynasty, Xiaogan's paper-cut art became more and more mature. After the Qing Dynasty, Xiaogan paper-cut technology developed from using scissors to carving with a knife. In 1952, Xiaogan carving and paper-cut Artists Association and Xiaogan carving and paper-cut Research Institute were established to actively carry out the protection and promotion of paper-cut. So far, more than 2000 different styles of paper-cut works have been preserved and created, and many of them have been sent to more than 10 countries and regions in Europe and Asia for exhibition and sale, winning many awards.

Xiaogan carved paper-cut combines the advantages of northern and southern art, and stands in the forest of Chinese folk art with fresh and lively, simple and elegant style. Its craft techniques mainly include "cutting" and "carving". The works are delicate and beautiful, the combination of lines and surfaces, the combination of virtual and real, appropriate density, exquisite composition, concise lines, fluent knife technique, rigorous breaking skills, strong rhythm, clear theme, giving people a simple, pure, healthy and lively feeling, with strong ornamental and decorative. Xiaogan carved paper-cut is rich in content, and its works often take longevity, auspiciousness, happiness and festivity as the theme. It is good at expressing people's pursuit and yearning for a better life by means of homophony, implication, symbol and implication.

Xiaogan carved paper-cut, with its rich image language, conveys the traditional ideas and cultural connotation, shows its unique aesthetic and artistic value, and provides vivid materials for the study of Chu culture. At present, Xiaogan paper-cut has been faced with many development puzzles. This kind of paper-cut has long construction period and low economic value, so it is difficult to adapt to the requirements of the market economy era. The weakening of local traditional folk customs and the decreasing demand for paper-cut further push this ancient folk art into a dilemma. In the context of the old artists' old age and the young people's unwillingness to learn and inherit, Xiaogan paper-cut is on the verge of extinction, so it is urgent to take relevant protection measures to revitalize it.