Paper cut (Yanchuan paper cut)

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

Applicant: Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province

Project No.: 315

Project No.: Ⅶ - 16

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Shaanxi Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province

Protection unit: Yanchuan Cultural Center

Introduction to paper cutting (Yanchuan paper cutting)

Applicant: Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province

Yanchuan paper-cut is one of the distinctive folk arts in Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province, with a long history. Its origin is related to the local folk customs of praying for blessings and driving away disasters, and it is also used in folk religious activities.

Yanchuan paper-cut is widely used in the local social life, every new year, weddings and funerals are inseparable from paper-cut. In the local folk, paper cutting and housework are important ways for working women to show their talents. The local folk proverb says, "it's better to give birth to a woman than to have pomegranate and peony." Yanchuan paper-cut is a kind of folk art with women as the main body of creation. It mostly reflects the complicated and interesting social customs and family life. There are two ways of expression: freehand brushwork and realistic brushwork, which are mostly related to the author's personality. By the 1990s, there were more than 15000 local paper-cut writers, including Gao Fenglian, Guo Rulin, Gao Hexiao, Liu Jieqiong, Liu Xiaojuan and Yuan Suihua.

Yanchuan paper-cut involves the themes of immortals and Buddhas, auspicious and auspicious, farming, seasonal customs, characters, stories, birds and animals, spinning and weaving, landscape flowers, reproduction and breeding, etc., which are mostly expressed in the form of window flowers, wall flowers, ceiling flowers, lanterns and fireworks, with simple and clean pictures, strict structure and clear priority. The image is simple in shape, square or round in outline, strong in lines, easy to operate and cut, and easy to paste and imitate. It has a rough and passionate local style.

Today, due to the impact of modern civilization, Yanchuan paper-cut is on the verge of no successor, so it needs to be rescued and protected.