Paper cut (Xiantao carved paper cut)

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

Applicant: Xiantao 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: Xiantao City, Hubei Province

Protection units: Xiantao Mass Art Museum, Xiantao Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center (cultural service management center of Xiantao Town Office)

Introduction to Xiantao paper cut

Applicant: Xiantao City, Hubei Province

Xiantao carved paper-cut, also known as "Mianyang carved paper-cut", spread in Xiantao City, Hubei Province, has a long history of inheritance and development. According to the records of Mianyang county annals, Mianyang paper-cut had formed its own style characteristics in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, with well-balanced composition and fine carving.

When making Xiantao paper-cut, artists use knives and white paper to carve out embroidery patterns commonly known as "flower like" on wax trays. Generally, when carving, it can overlap ten or twenty layers of white paper. Most of the carving knives are made of alarm clocks and scalpels, while the wax tray is made of vegetable oil, white wax and censer ash. Most of the "flower patterns" carved by artists are auspicious and auspicious patterns, such as "magpie climbing plum", "dragon and Phoenix showing auspiciousness", "mandarin duck playing in the water", "goldfish making lotus", "deer and crane Tongchun", "carp jumping dragon's gate", "Lion rolling embroidered ball" and so on. They are generally used as embroidery patterns for shoes, insoles, hats, pillows, saliva pockets, tent floats, tent curtains, door curtains and so on.

Xiantao carved paper-cut is characterized by complicated and complete composition, clear black and white, fluent and neat knife technique, fine and rigorous broken work, beautiful and symmetrical dotted lines, smooth and smooth lines, rich and balanced patterns, realistic and freehand brushwork, rich artistic language, and rich decorative flavor. It is unique in folk paper-cut.

In the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, Xiantao paper-cut was seriously impacted, and the carving craft society was closed. In recent years, under the influence of market economy, traditional folk culture has been ignored, Xiantao carving paper-cut art has a fault in the inheritance, "unique skills" are facing the danger of "out of print" and need to be protected.