Paper-cutting is a traditional folk art in China. It uses scissors to cut paper into various decorative patterns, so it is called "paper cutting". Paper-cutting originated in Han Dynasty. During the Han and Tang dynasties, folk women cut flowers and birds out of gold and silver foil and colored silks and pasted them on their temples as decorations.

Later, during festivals, colorful paper was cut into stories of flowers, animals or people. Those posted on the windows are called "window grilles", those posted on the doors are called "house numbers", and those used to celebrate are called "happy flowers".

Li Shangyin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Man's Day is a Thing" that "a ray of gold is a victory to pass on fine customs, and the ribbon-cutting is a promotion to people", which means that the golden carving craft is so well done that it is a custom inherited from Jingzhou; Yangzhou's paper-cutting skills are so praised that it is a style handed down from the Jin Dynasty. The history of paper-cutting is also recorded from the perspective of poetry.

2. Southern Song Dynasty and Ming and Qing Dynasties

During the Southern Song Dynasty, professional artists took paper-cutting as their profession. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the paper-cut handicraft art matured and reached its peak. Folk paper-cut handicraft art has a wider range of applications, such as flower decorations on folk lanterns, decorative patterns on fans and embroidery patterns, all of which are reprocessed with paper-cut as decoration.

3. After the founding of New China,

After the founding of New China, under the guidance of the literary policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and bringing forth the new", artists have created a large number of new paper-cuts to express new socialist people and new things, which has opened up the way for paper-cutting creation and enriched the form and content of Chinese folk decorative arts.

In the creation of new paper-cutting, children, sports, acrobatics, singing and dancing have also become the most common themes of paper-cutting.

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Purpose of paper cutting

Paper-cutting is widely circulated among the people and has a long history. As a traditional folk art, paper-cutting plays an important role in folk activities. Folk paper-cutting often refines and summarizes natural forms through homophonic, symbolic and moral means, forming beautiful patterns. From the specific use, it can be roughly divided into four categories:

First, it is used for posting.

That is, it is directly pasted on doors, windows, walls, lanterns and ribbons for decoration. Such as window grilles, wall flowers, ceiling flowers, cigarette lattices, lantern flowers, paper-tied flowers, door stickers, etc.

Second, the use of lining.

In other words, it is used to decorate gifts, dowries, sacrifices and offerings. Such as happy flowers, flowers, fireworks, candlestick flowers, fragrant flowers, Chongyang flag and so on.

Third, embroidery patterns.

Used for clothing, shoes, hats and pillows. Such as shoe flower, pillow flower, hat flower, bib flower, sleeve flower and suspender flower.

Fourth, it is used for printing and dyeing.

That is, as a printing plate of blue printed cloth, it is used for clothes, quilts, door curtains, bags, bibs, headscarves and so on.

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