A pair of scissors, a piece of red paper, they live an ordinary life. However, one day, they met a pair of skillful hands, scissors began to fly on the paper, the paper jumped between the fingers, only to see "lotus flowers blooming in the lotus pond, crabs walking, mandarin ducks playing in the water, fish playing, grass flying", the red paper "lived", and the hands that gave it life were Gao Shaoping's, which was her unique skill as a paper-cutting expert.

Gao Shaoping, 43 years old this year, is a native of Zhangpu, and paper-cutting is a good thing, and the honorary certificate with a shelf full of houses is a proof of this. However, what is even more awesome is that even when she is listening to the song, others listen to the song, but when she arrives at Gao Shaoping, what she hears is "the sound of a pair of scissors cutting through the red paper", so when the song "One Family on Both Sides of the Strait" has just been played, only three minutes later, a 1.1-meter-high and 1.6-meter-long work "A Family" was also formed in her mind.

"Paper-cutting is an art, and it can also have a personality, it depends on how you create and play it." Gao Shaoping is very thoughtful, often implement "zero breakthrough", she currently has the largest personal paper-cut exhibition hall in Zhangpu, works from the "ordinary people's home", fly to the temple "Wang Xie Tang Qianyan", for example, according to the unearthed cultural relics blue and white porcelain, to create a blue and white porcelain paper-cut series, because of the ingenious blank, three-dimensional sense and strong sense of hollowing, and even become a gift from the country's diplomatic department to foreign friends, so in France, Singapore and other places have her "fans".

Recently, Gao Shaoping fell in love with the language of the Internet again, and when she wanted to create a paper-cut with the theme of "harmony", she immediately thought of "river crab" and "lotus crab" on the Internet: "lotus" is homophonic to "and", "crab" is homophonic to "harmonious", and mandarin ducks represent family.

"I created this paper-cut to bless the family, social harmony, and the unity and harmony of people of all ethnic groups and all walks of life." Mr. Gao said, look at this creativity, the composition is full, the picture is vivid, "crabs, mandarin ducks" are all traditional paper-cut elements, once combined, the idea appears, and it does not appear abrupt.

Chinese paper-cutting is a kind of folk art that uses scissors or carving knives to cut patterns on paper, which is used to decorate life or cooperate with other folk activities. In China, paper-cutting has a broad mass base, blends into the social life of people of all ethnic groups, and is an important part of various folk activities.

Its inherited visual image and modeling format contain rich cultural and historical information, express the social recognition, moral concepts, practical experience, life ideals and aesthetic tastes of the general public, and have multiple social values such as cognition, education, ideology, lyricism, entertainment, and communication.

On May 20, 2006, the paper-cut art heritage was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. At the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, held from September 28 to October 2, 2009, the Chinese paper-cutting project declared by China was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In January, the General Office of the Ministry of Education announced that Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the inheritance base of China's excellent traditional Chinese paper-cutting culture.

The invention of paper was in the Western Han Dynasty (6th century BC) BC, before which there could be no paper-cutting art, but at that time, people used thin sheet materials to make handicrafts through the technique of hollow carving, but it was popular as early as before the appearance of paper, that is, to carve, cut, tick, carve, cut the technique in gold leaf, leather, silk, and even cut patterns on leaves.

In the "Historical Records", it is recorded that in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, King Cheng of Zhou used sycamore leaves to cut "Gui" to his younger brother, and sealed Ji Yu to Tang as a marquis. During the Warring States Period, leather carving was used, (one of the cultural relics unearthed from the No. 1 Chu Tomb of Jiangling Wangshan, Hubei Province), and silver foil hollow carving (one of the cultural relics unearthed from the Warring States Ruins in Guwei Village, Huixian County, Henan), all of which were withdrawn with paper-cutting, and their appearance laid a certain foundation for the formation of folk paper-cutting.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there is a poem in the "Mulan Ci" that "the mirror appliqué is yellow". The earliest discovery of paper-cut works in China is five paper-cuts of the Northern Dynasties (A.D.) unearthed near the Flame Mountain in Turpan, Xinjiang. These paper-cuts are folded repeatedly and the images are not covered by each other.

Paper-cutting in the Tang Dynasty has been in a period of great development, Du Fu's "Peng Yaxing" poem has the sentence "warm soup wets my feet, and paper beckons my soul", and the custom of summoning souls with paper-cutting has been spread among the people at that time. The Tang Dynasty paper-cuts now in the British Museum can be seen to have a very high level of paper-cutting handicraft art at that time, and the composition of the picture is complete, expressing an ideal realm of heaven and earth.

In the Tang Dynasty, the popular Jie, its carved woodblock pattern has the characteristics of paper-cutting, such as the "pair of sheep" in the Shosoin Temple in Japan, and the pattern of the sheep is a typical paper-cut handmade artistic expression. In the Tang Dynasty, there were also leaky printing plates made in the form of paper-cutting, and people carved them into flower plates with thick paper, and the dye was leaked and printed on the cloth to form beautiful patterns.

In addition, in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes have also unearthed the Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties of paper-cutting, such as "Shuanglu Tower", "Group of Towers and Deer", "Pagoda", etc., all belong to the category of "merit flower paper", mainly used to worship Buddha statues, decorate halls, dojos. The composition of the picture is complex, there are specific contents, and there are also ink paintings such as "Bodhisattva Standing Statue" and "Bodhisattva Standing Statue Holding Flags", which are works that combine paper-cutting and painting.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were already industry artists who took paper-cutting as their profession. According to the Song people's meticulous "Wulin Old Things", there were hundreds of "small economies" in Hangzhou at this time. Among them, there are special "cutting patterns", some are good at cutting "calligraphy", and some are good at cutting "colorful patterns".

The paper industry in the Song Dynasty was mature and there were many names of paper products, which provided conditions for the popularization of paper-cutting. For example, it has become a "gift flower" for folk gifts, a "window flower" attached to the window, or used for the decoration of lanterns and tea cups. In the Song Dynasty, the application scope of folk paper-cutting gradually expanded, and the Jizhou kiln in Jiangxi Province used paper-cutting as a pattern for ceramics, and made the ceramics more exquisite through glazing and firing; The folk also use the form of paper-cutting, using the skins of donkeys, cows, horses, sheep and other animals to carve into shadow puppet figures; The blue calico process made of the openwork plate is carved into a pattern with oil cardboard, and the pattern of scraping and printing is the use of paper-cutting techniques, which are divided into yin and yang carvings, and the long line should be cut off to divide the virtual and the real.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the handmade art of paper-cutting matured and reached its heyday. The use of folk paper-cut handicraft art is more extensive, such as the flower decoration on the folk lanterns, the ornamentation on the fan surface, and the embroidery patterns, etc., all of which use paper-cutting as decoration into reprocessing.

And more Chinese folk often use paper-cutting as decorations to decorate the home and beautify the home environment, such as doorways, window flowers, cabinet flowers, wedding flowers, and roof flowers are all used to decorate doors, windows, and rooms.

Although the art of paper-cutting comes from the folk, it has become a national art in the Qing Dynasty, and even the relatives of the emperor at that time are inseparable from paper-cutting. The Kunning Palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing is a candle cave house when the Qing Dynasty emperor got married. According to the customs of the Manchus, the window paper of the front and back windows of the palace was pasted on the outside.

The walls are pasted with paper, and the four corners are pasted with black "囍" character paper-cut corner flowers, and the center of the ceiling is a black dragon and phoenix group flower paper-cut. The walls of the aisles on both sides of the palace are also decorated with paper cutouts. Judging from the patterns, materials, and colors of paper-cutting, there is basically no difference between them and ordinary farmhouse ceiling flowers and wall flowers, except that the paper-cut pattern is slightly larger.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the "May Fourth" New Culture Movement, under the advocacy of advanced intellectuals Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Liu Bannong, Zhou Zuoren, etc., established the prototype of Chinese folklore. They collected a wide range of folklore materials, but also worked hard to collect folk art works, including folk paper-cutting. In the 30s, the artist Chen Zhinong started in Beijing

The research and creation of folk paper-cutting. In the form of sketches and silhouettes, he depicted a large number of customs and folklore in old Beijing, such as street vendors, workshop craftsmen, food stalls and tea picks, bazaars and temple fairs, and idlers in the market.

In the 40s of the 20th century, paper-cuts based on real life began to appear. In 1942, Mao Zedong published the "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art", which pointed out the literary and artistic policy of "literature and art serving the workers, peasants and soldiers".

Since then, Yan'an Luyi artists Chen Shuliang, Zhang Ding, Li Qun, Gu Yuan, Xia Feng and others began to learn the local folk paper-cutting with a deep mass foundation, collected, excavated, sorted out and researched the folk paper-cutting, and created a large number of new paper-cuts that reflect the production, life and battle of the people in the border area.

The work uses the style of folk tradition to describe the new content of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the construction of border areas. It has promoted the creation and development of mass paper-cutting, and revolutionized the traditional folk paper-cutting.

In 1944, the new folk paper-cut works in Northwest China were exhibited for the first time in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region, which opened the prelude to the development of paper-cutting art after the founding of New China. It can be said that Yan'an's paper-cutting has created a new era of Chinese paper-cutting.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, under the guidance of the literary and artistic policy of "let a hundred flowers bloom and bring forth the new", the artists created a large number of new paper-cuts that expressed the new people and new things of socialism, opened up the road of paper-cut creation, and also enriched the form and content of Chinese folk decorative arts.

In addition to the paper-cutting that expresses the new atmosphere of all walks of life, children, sports, acrobatics, singing and dancing have also become the most common themes of paper-cutting.

Since its birth, the art of paper-cutting has not been interrupted in Chinese history. It is enriched in various folk activities and is one of the art forms with the richest connotation of Chinese folk history and culture.

Monochrome paper-cutting is the most basic form of paper-cutting, which is cut from various colors such as red, green, brown, black, and gold, and is mainly used for window decoration and embroidery.

There are mainly three kinds of expression: yin carving, yang carving, and yin and yang combination. It is used for the paper-cutting of embroidery substrates, and the technique of cutting and thorns is commonly used. The needle is to prick small dots in the details of the pattern with the tip of the needle, and leave a "dark knife" in some parts, which can be used as the basis for changing the needle and thread during embroidery. Folding paper-cuts, silhouettes, tearing paper, etc. are all manifestations of monochrome paper-cutting.

Folding paper-cutting is one of the most common folk methods of making expression. The so-called folding paper-cut is a paper-cut that is folded and cut in different ways. The earliest "Tsushima" and "Monkey" flowers were folded and cut.

Folding paper-cut folding method is concise, easy to make, labor-saving and time-saving, the shape is summarized and has a certain deformation, especially suitable for the performance of structural symmetrical shape and symmetrical schema, such as people, frogs, butterflies, turtles, reflections, fish, etc., geometric patterns, flowers, scenes, utensils and other themes can be adapted, and the development is extremely symmetrical, and can change a variety of suitable shapes, two sides continuous, four sides continuous or multi-party continuous, which is a major reason why it can be circulated for a long time, folding paper-cutting to China's paper-cutting popularization and craft pattern modeling, plays an important role.

Silhouette is an ancient form of paper-cut art, through the outer contour to express the shape of people and objects, so it pays the most attention to the beauty and shape of the outer contour, the silhouette is limited by the contour modeling, generally to show the side of the person or other objects as well.

Its tools are mainly scissors and carving knives, and the paper is generally black or heavy colored paper. The silhouette is very suitable for expressing the light transmission effect, and it is a very distinctive type of paper-cutting.

Tearing paper is a new type of deformation from traditional folk paper-cutting. The method is to use different types of paper, using the method of hand tearing to tear the shape, and the hand cutting will naturally be greatly limited, not suitable for the effect of ingenious workmanship, but it is this limitation that shows its unique artistic personality, there is a kind of ancient and elegant, bold and vigorous style. There is often a kind of randomness in the process of tearing paper, and there is a natural charm.

With the exploration and development of the expression of paper-cutting, the forms and techniques of color paper-cutting are gradually increasing, such as point dyeing, color matching, color separation, color filling, wood printing, spray painting, sketching and color weaving. Each form has its own characteristics and uniqueness: dot dyeing paper-cutting is moisturizing and decorative; The color-matched paper-cutting is crisp and the color block is bright; The color separation paper-cutting is distinct and the color sense is rich; The coloring paper-cutting is simple, clean and distinct, all of which give people different feelings.

The color is dotted on the engraved paper for the dot dyeing and paper cutting. This kind of paper-cutting also belongs to carved paper, and there are not many yang lines in the design, and the emphasis is on dry small area of yin carving, so as to leave a large area of the yang side for spot dyeing. Similar to the effect of woodblock prints.

The colors used in dot dyeing and paper-cutting are generally magenta, magenta green, etc., which are used for folk dyeing, collectively referred to as "color". Dye it on a paper cut made of white rice paper. As soon as the color melts into the raw rice paper, it immediately penetrates up and down, left and right, and can dye three or five sheets at a time.

If the penetration is insufficient, you can turn it over and make up the pen on the back. When blending, it is mixed with liquor or alcohol, which is very permeable, and is used on rice paper and other highly absorbent paper. Since alcohol and liquor do not contain glue, the paper surface is still flat and wrinkle-free after the alcohol volatilizes, which can produce a good blending effect.

When dotting and dyeing, a brush is dipped in a color, not intertwined, and the color matching principle is like watercolor and gouache painting. Yellow and blue are mixed to form green, and red and blue are mixed to become purple. Some manufacturers use assembly line operation, dyeing workers lined up, one dyed red and yellow, one dyed blue and green, and all dyed when it was the turn of the last person.

Color-matching paper-cutting is usually based on yang engraving, which is the opposite of spot-dyed paper-cutting, and a large area is hollowed out to leave room for coloring. From the back of the work pasted with colored paper blocks, mostly cut with black paper or gold paper, according to the skin color, clothing, utensils, flowers and trees are pasted with different colors.

On the copy box, use a pencil to outline the shape of the required color, and then cut it out according to the shape of the pencil, and stick it with a small brush dipped in paste according to the part.

Sometimes the color register deliberately goes beyond or below the contour line, making it appear more vivid. For example, the flush of a girl's face and cheeks is cut into an oval shape, which is very interesting to the folk baby.

Color-matched paper-cutting doesn't have to be a complete set everywhere. Regardless of whether it is all or part of the color, you should consider whether it is necessary to do so, and beware of half the effort and thanklessness. All color registers should strengthen the main tone, and local color registers should pay attention to less and fine, which plays the role of the finishing touch.

Although the color of the paper-cut is more free and easy to choose, but one more color does play a role in one more, two colors can be summarized, and the third color must never be added. The use of color is concise, the technique is concise and just right, and it is a superb expression of art.

Separated paper cutouts, some are also called cut and paste. It is a combination collage of two or more monochrome paper cuts, which is basically a monochrome paper cutout. It is made from cut paper of different colors and shapes to form a picture.

When combining collages, pay attention to the coordination between colors, and should not be too trivial. There is also a kind of paper-cutting that is divided into the main pattern and the shading, and then the main pattern is set off with the background, and the collage is staggered and overlapped. For example, in a paper-cut in which the sky is blue, the clouds are white, the ground is grass green, the yurt is purple-gray, and the camel is ochre-colored.

Coloring paper-cutting, also known as pen-color paper-cutting, is used to color. To do this, a black cutout is pasted onto a white backing paper and a pen is drawn within the outline of the line. The flat coating effect is similar to that of color matching, but the technique is different. After filling, there will be a change in shade and a natural blending effect. Pay attention to the pen not to be rigid and repeatedly altered, you can make full use of the effect of natural immersion.

Woodblock paper-cutting is a form of paper-cutting that combines printing and cutting, and some of its methods are engraved after woodblock printing, that is, "opening phase", and then dyeing on the paper-cut printed on the woodblock, and some are directly printed into a paper-cut effect and directly pasted. Woodblock paper-cutting is similar to folk woodblock New Year paintings, which can be produced in large quantities.

It is mostly used to express the themes of opera characters and mythological stories, and has a stronger expressive power than pure engraved paper, but it is not as perfect and natural as dot-dyed engraved paper.

Inkjet paper-cutting is a paper-cut made by spray-dyeing with an airbrush (airbrush). It can be sprayed on the backing paper or on the framed decoupage. The fog points sprayed by the airbrush have special effects, such as mist, morning dew, frost and snow, and raindrops. There are large and small points, and there are sparse and dense points.

Sketching paper-cutting is a form of combining paper-cutting with painting. One is mainly cutting, using a brush to outline the details, and there are also all lines to outline the picture, and then using scissors to hollow out the blank space; The other is to use gold leaf paper to carve out the general outline of the pattern, so that some parts are blank, and the lines are appropriately outlined.

Since it is a combination of cut and painting, many details can be drawn directly with a pen, and the combination of cut and painting can produce a new interest, which not only uses painting techniques, but also retains the uniqueness of paper cutting.

Color knitting is a type of paper-cutting that is used at the same time. It is to use strips of paper of various colors, through different cutting and weaving, to form various geometric patterns and flowers, animals, people, etc. Its bright lines and unique composition, in addition to its decorative role, also has a wide range of practical value, can be used for mat weaving, basket weaving, embroidery, children's handicrafts, etc.

Three-dimensional paper-cutting can be both monochrome and colored. It adopts a new type of paper-cut that is close to sculpture and relief produced by painting, cutting, folding, gluing and other comprehensive techniques, which absorbs the skills of modern art, fully embodies the characteristics of realism and art romance, and makes the paper-cut change from a flat sense to three-dimensional, which can be used for ornamental modeling and children's handicraft.

Folding the paper to produce a repetitive pattern is one of the most basic paper-cutting techniques, and it is also an expression technique used in monochrome paper-cutting. The different effects it produces depend on the number and angle of folding.

When using this process to cut flowers, the paper can be folded twice or three times and then cut, and the resulting pattern is a shape that is evenly matched on all four or six sides. If an animal or figure is cut, the shape of the cut is symmetrical after folding once. Because the folding paper-cut is a pattern with strong symmetry, the resulting figure is more rhythmic. This technique is mostly used to cut the word flower and the ceiling flower.

The basic effect of decoupage is obtained by using yin and yang lines alone or in combination.

Yin engraving, also known as engraving, is to engrave the contour line of the structure of the object, the method of expressing the line in the large block surface, this effect is heavy, strong, and has a strong sense of weight, there is a strong sense of black and white contrast, and the blank space that is cut to form a pattern, and the line is not connected with the line.

Yang engraving, also known as engraving, is just the opposite of yin engraving, which is to engrave the blank part and retain the contour line. The lines of the pattern are solid, and the lines are connected. This method is smooth, clear, and delicate.

The combination of yin and yang is the best expression technique of paper-cutting. The appearance of two methods of yin and yang engraving in the same work makes the composition varied, and the contrast between black, white and gray in the picture is clear, which is a highly expressive paper-cutting technique.

Use a knife or scissors to cut out the basic outline on the paper, and then use a needle to pierce the pattern, mainly to connect the multiple layers of paper, and at the same time to see the details in the roughness. This technique is often used for embroidery patterns, and sometimes the patterns are symmetrical, such as pillow flowers, shoe flowers, sleeve flowers, etc.

2~4 identical paper patterns are needed, so they are cut and pierced with rice paper, and after completion, there are multiple identical paper patterns. Rice paper is used because it sticks easily and is thin, so it will not affect the beauty when embroidering underneath. Replacing it with a quick and easy stapler or staple also has the effect of connecting multiple layers of paper.

From the perspective of specific uses, it can be roughly divided into four categories:

1. Posting, that is, directly posting on doors and windows, walls, lights, and color ties. Such as window flowers, wall flowers, ceiling flowers, smoke lattices, lantern flowers, paper flowers, door paper;

Second, it is used for decoration, that is, for decorating gifts, dowries, sacrifices, and offerings. Such as happy flowers, offering flowers, ceremonial flowers, candlestick flowers, incense flowers, Chongyang flag;

3. Embroidery base sample, used for clothing, shoes and hats, and pillows. Such as shoe flowers, pillow flowers, hat flowers, saliva flowers, sleeve flowers, strap flowers;

Fourth, for printing and dyeing, that is, as a printing plate of blue calico, used for clothing, quilts, curtains, wrappings, bibs, headscarves, etc.

A paper cut for decoration on a window. In the north, the windows of the northern farmhouses are mostly wooden lattice windows, with vertical lattices, squares or geometric lattices, and a layer of white "leather paper" is pasted on them.

The form of window grilles includes corner flowers that decorate the four corners of the pane, as well as broken branch flowers, and there are more free all kinds of suitable patterns, such as animals, flowers, and characters, as well as continuous complete sets of drama or legend story window flowers. In short, adapt to different shapes of panes and make different arrangements. There is a special arrangement, that is, the window grille that crosses the pane, which is called "window Yue" in Shandong folk.