There is a beautiful love legend about Gaomi paper-cutting. Li Furen, the beloved princess of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, died unfortunately. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was heartbroken and missed him day and night. According to legend, there was a man named Shao Weng in Qi Gaomi who was good at magic and attracted souls. After hearing this, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed, and ordered Shaoweng to come to summon the soul immediately. Little Weng cut out the image of Li Furen with paper, lit candles in the square account at night, and reflected Li Furen like a real person. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was even sadder when he saw it from a distance in another account. He cried and said, "Yes or no, you see, He Shanshan gets up late?" It is said that this is the origin of Gaomi paper-cutting. According to some archaeological remains, paper-cutting appeared in the Northern Dynasties at the latest, with a history of 1500 years. The formation of high-density paper-cut art style is related to many factors.

First, it is deeply influenced by folk art painting.

Judging from the artistic modeling of murals, brick reliefs and stone reliefs of Han tombs in Gaomi, they are very similar to the innocence and simplicity of folk paper-cutting, and they are closely related.

Second, it is related to the local climate conditions.

Gaomi is located in the west of Jiaodong Peninsula, affected by the northern inland climate, and the rural inland is generally dry. If the paper-cut lines are not straight, it will directly affect its decorative effect and preservation time. In addition, window grilles are also commonly used materials, and window grilles are limited by the shape of windows. In the past, most of the windows in the countryside on the east bank of Weihe River were "books" or lattices, and the window lattice was as dense as a fence, occupying more than one third of the whole light transmission area. In order to minimize the influence on light transmission, only thin lines and vertical bars are used for composition.

The third is the influence of private building style.

Every village is different and every family is different. The large window corner flower in the southwest township of Gaomi can span three windowsills, with paper-cut characters such as "more than one year" and "making money in four seasons" inserted in the middle. The small window corner flower in the southeast township, along the rolling window, is attached to a row of three or four square continuous long window grilles, which is called "window lip". North Lane is used to sticking flowers such as Eight Immortals, Twenty-four Filial Pieties, complete sets of opera characters, and decorative flowers such as "horn flowers", which are stuck on the rear window with pictures of lions, tigers and cockfights in the middle. Nowadays, with the further modernization of residential buildings and the replacement of large glass windows, paper-cut composition has also developed to a large and comprehensive scale, and various colorful art forms have emerged.

The fourth is the infiltration of folk customs.

The Spring Festival is the most solemn festival in the minds of working people. During the Spring Festival, every household sticks paper-cuts, from the "Fu" lamp on the screen wall to the top flower on the ceiling, the window grilles and corner flowers by the window, the "cockfighting" on the top of the window, the steamed bread flowers on the steamed bread, the shoe flowers on the insole and the "door sign" on the top of the door. There are also young men and women engaged, married, children's full moon over "a hundred years" and so on, paper-cutting has been greatly used. In this way, the paper-cut of this village spread to another village, developing the paper-cut style of another village. In this way, high-density paper-cutting has developed continuously in mutual learning, mutual circulation, mutual reference and mutual improvement, forming its own unique style. From 65438 to 0984, Gaomi folk paper-cut was exhibited in Beijing, further establishing its position in China folk paper-cut circles. 65438-0993 Gaomi was awarded the title of "Hometown of Folk Paper-cutting in China" by the Ministry of Culture. Later, several high-density paper-cut women were invited to perform abroad, which was called "China Magic Scissors". Many art college students came to Gaomi to study Gaomi paper-cutting. Some experts and friends at home and abroad have also come to Gaomi to study Gaomi paper-cutting, which has gained a good reputation at home and abroad.

Since the reform and opening up, Gaomi paper-cut has gone global, and many works have been exhibited at home and abroad for many times and won prizes. Many paper-cut artists in Gaomi have gone to Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, France, the United States, Russia and other countries and regions to perform paper-cut performances, and their social influence has been expanding. Among them, Fan 1996, a paper-cut artist, was awarded the title of "First Class Arts and Crafts Artist" by UNESCO. Qi Xiuhua, a Gaomi peasant woman who is known as the "female champion" of folk paper-cutting art, 1996 cut out the picture of "Golden Bull Divided Hooves" and was selected as the stamp pattern of China Zodiac. 1997, in order to welcome the return of Hong Kong, she carefully conceived and cut out 1997 cows of different shapes, leaving a permanent memory for the special day of Hong Kong's return. Since the reform and opening-up, the representative works of Gaomi paper-cut have been collected by China Art Museum and Shandong Art Museum, and many monographic collections have been published, such as Local Treasures, Folk Treasures, Selected Works of Gaomi Folk Art, Paper-cut of China Folk Zodiac, and Paper-cut Works of Qi Xiuhua.