Yangzhou Paper-cut

Paper-cut was widespread first in Yangzhou and other places of China . The emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty went to Yangzhou three times. He had built a lot of temporary dwelling place for enjoyment. Every winter, the flowers and trees in the garden withered, and the water in the pool froze. Yang Guang ordered that the maids cut paper as the folks did. Colorful brocade was cut as flowers and leaves which were used to decorate the twigs. The brocade was also cut into lotus, water caltrop, and so on. They were placed on the surface of the pool where the ice had been removed. This created a beautiful scene of the turn of spring and summer. This show that paper-cut in Yangzhou has a long history.

In the Tang Dynasty, the people of Yangzhou had the custom of cutting paper to welcome spring. At the Beginning of the Spring, the folk people cut paper into flowers, butterflies, and so on. They used them either to decorate beauties or genuine flowers. There are some special uses of paper-cut. Among the common people, paper is cut into horses, dummies, money, and so on, for a memorial ceremony of the dead. The famous poet Du Fu writes about the activity of paper-cut: “Wash my feet with hot water and call back my spirit by cutting paper.” In the spring of 1980, to receive the statue of Master Jianzhen coming back to his hometown, an artist of paper-cut made a product with the title of Jianzhen the great Monk. Mr. Zhao Puchu wrote a ci poem, In Memory of the Area South of the Yangtze River , which mentioned paper-cut.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the decorativeness of Yangzhou paper-cut increased. It could both be appreciated and utilized. It could be used as the decoration of women and children, as the model for embroidery in shoe, pillow, tablecloth, sheet, so on and so forth. The paper-cut can also be used as the decoration in folk customs, such as patterns of festivals, celebration, gate, etc. The folk paper-cut artists use just a pair of scissors and several pieces of Xuan paper, they can produce numerous variations, which stand for luck, satisfaction, longevity, richness, happiness respectively. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China, many artists in Yangzhou made their living by paper-cut.

After the liberation, the CPC and the government paid enough attention to paper-cut and many other folk arts and crafts. In 1955, the agency of folk arts and crafts was established (now the Yangzhou Arts and Crafts Factory), where the scattered folk artists were brought together and given good working conditions, which greatly inspired their creativity. Now they produce more than 1000 kinds of products, to be sold on markets of dozens of countries and regions. Zhang Yongshou, a famous old artist, is an outstanding artist of paper-cut. He learned this craftsmanship from his father at the age of twelve. After 70 years' of artistic creation, he has produced more than one thousand products of paper-cut. His major products include All the Flowers Blossoming in the 1950s, A Hundred Chrysanthemums in the 1970s, and A Hundred Butterflies Attached to the Flowers in the 1980s, all three being collections of paper-cut. After All the Flowers Blossoming was published, Guo Moruo wrote a poem in praise of it and the artist. In 1979, Zhang Yongshou was given the title of Master of Arts and Crafts in China . Friendly Japanese lauded him as “national treasure on the earth”.

rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, pig