In the dynasty of Ming and Qing, the skill of folk paper-cutting gradually moves to maturity and reaches its peak.
The application of folk paper-cutting gets a wider range, nearly all the folk lanterns, fan, embroidery, etc, are decorated with paper-cutting patterns. Actually, in the folk of Chinese country, people more often use paper-cutting as accessories of household to beautify the home environment. For example, they like to paste various patterns of paper-cutting on doors, windows, cabinets, ceiling and any other place that they can paste.
In addition to the paper-cutting craftsmen who appeared after Southern Song Dynasty, the most basic team of Chinese folk paper-cutting arts and crafts is those rural women.
Nu Gong, also called Needlework, means traditional handmade skills of women, including textile, knitting, sewing, embroidery, pulp dyeing, etc. Nu Gong is an important perfect sign to Chinese traditional women. So paper-cutting, as one of required skills of Nu Gong, becomes a crafts that girls must learn from childhood. They get paper-cutting patterns from their mother or sisters, and then copy and constantly repeat, then depict familiar and loved things, such as fish and insects, flowers and trees, pavilions and bridges landscape. Finally, they could reach the state of arbitrary, easily cutting out the new patterns as they want.
The arts of Chinese folk paper-cutting, like an ivy, old and evergreen. It has become a symbol for its universality, practical, and aesthetic.

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In the Song Dynasty, with the paper-making industry becoming more and more mature, there are numerous kinds of paper, and which has provided conditions for the popularity of paper-cutting, such as “Gift flowers” which are pasted on the gifts boxes; “Window flowers” which are pasted on the windows, or used for decoration of illuminations or Tea calyx.

The application of folk paper-cutting in Song Dynasty gradually expended. Jizhou Kiln, a place of Jiangxi, makes the paper-cutting as patterns of ceramics. They carefully glaze, and then fire to make the ceramics more delicate.

In addition, people also accord the paper-cutting patterns to carve shadow puppet patterns, with fur materials of donkeys, cattle, horses, sheep and other animals.

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Paper cutting (jiǎn zhǐ) can be seen in many parts of China during the Spring Festival. People paste patterns on the window, door lintel (mén méi) or desks for the festival atmosphere.

It’s difficult to tell when it originated. One saying is that it originated from the religious ceremony or offering sacrifices. The ancient people cut papers into animals or people. They either buried them with the dead or burned them on the funerals, wishing that things that paper stand for could be with the dead. A thousand years ago, paper cut was used for decoration. According to historic books, women in the Tang Dynasty (táng cháo) used paper cut as headdress. In the Song Dynasty, it was the decoration of the gifts. People pasted on windows or doors or used it as decorations on walls, mirrors or lanterns. Some people made a living by it.

Paper cutting is all made by hand. It is easy to learn the rudiments (rù mén). Non-craftsmen need only a knife and paper. For craftsman, they need knives and gravers of various types to make complicated patterns. It can be one piece of paper or many pieces. Simple patterns can be cut with a knife. For complicated patterns, people first pasted the pattern on the paper and then used various kinds of knives to make it. No mistake can be made during the process otherwise the work would fail.

Paper cutting covers nearly all topics, from flowers, birds, animals, legendary people, figures in classic novels, to types of facial make-up in Peking opera. Paper cutting has various styles in different parts of China.

In the past, women living in the countryside gathered in their free time to make paper cutting, which is a way to judge their skillfulness. As society develops, fewer and fewer people learn this skill while there are some who still regard it as a profession. At present, there are factories and associations for paper cutting in China. Exhibitions and exchanges are held regularly and books of this kind are published. Paper cutting has changed from decoration to a kind of art. At the same time, paper cutting also appears in cartoons, on stage, in magazines or in TV series.

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• The History of Chinese Paper-cutting（V）

In the period of Tang Dynasty, Chinese paper-cutting has experienced a prosper development. There is a custom that paper-cutting is used to pray for god for souls, the great poem DuFu has the verse: warm water touches my feet, paper cuts call my soul. From the Paper-cutting, produced in Tang Dynasty, now hidden in the British Museum, we could find that the skill of Chinese traditional handicraft art – papercutting, produced in Tang Dynasty, already has achieved a high level. The complete composition of picture has expressed a beautiful and ideal scene that out of heaven and earth.

During the Tang Dynasty, with the development of the folk paper-cutting, various other alike applications have come into being, such as ornamental engraving woodcut, and patterns on the cloth.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of Chinese handicraft gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best handmade Chinese crafts & gifts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

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With regard to the history of the handicraft arts – Chinese paper-cutting, that is, paper-cutting in its real science, should have a beginning with the emergence of paper in Han Dynasty, which benefits the birth, development, and popularity of the paper-cutting.

It’s known to all, paper is very easy to mildew and rot. In additional, the southeast of china is humid all the year round. May and June even have a long rainy season, so paper products are very east to decay over time. However, paper-cutting is a product that is so common in china, once decay, it’s so easy for people to make a deal of new ones.

On the contrary, in the part of northwest of China, the climate is relative dry, so the paper cannot be rotten easily. That is also considered the reason the first paper-cutting was found in the northwest of  China – Xinjiang.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team.  Largest selection of China gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best Chinese arts & crafts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

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Chinese paper-cutting, as a matter of fact, has a long history. Chinese paper is invented in the BC of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 24), so before this time, Chinese paper-cutting couldn’t be appear. However, in that period, China has other exquisite hollowed-out arts crafts which are so popular in Chinese folk. Those traditional Chinese handicrafts are usually cutout with skills of carving, chasing, or cutting in gold foil, leather, silk, even in the leaves. In the beginning of Western Han Dynasty, China has the recording about carving in the parasol leaves. In the period of warring states (475-221 B.C.), China could chase patterns with the leather and silver foil. They are the origin of paper cuts, and lay the foundations for the appearance of paper-cutting. According to the archaeology, The two pieces of follower paper-cuttings, most early be discovered, in 1967, near the site of Gaochang in Xinjiang Turpan Basin, are cut with hemp paper and are used for sacrifice. This first two pieces of paper-cuttings have offered a strong evidence to Chinese paper-cutting’ s formation and development.

Copyright (c)Chinese Handicrafts Team. Largest selection of Chinese handicraft gifts for sale, such as Chinese knots, Chinese Paper-Cutting, cloth art & embroidery, shadow puppet, straw plaiting, etc. With profound historical culture, they are the best handmade Chinese crafts & gifts or ornaments. We assure you of our Best Services at all times.

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Paper-cutting is one of the most popular traditional folk art in china and it has a long history. Due to its material readily available, low cost, immediate effect, wide adaption, various styles, vivid image, Chinese paper-cutting is welcome generally. In addition, paper-cutting is very suitable for rural women making in their spare time, both practical and decorative, so paper-cutting could be seen all over the country and even forms a style of genre in different place.

Chinese paper-cutting not only reflects the masses of aesthetic preferences, also contains the nation’s deep social psychology, especially its modeling features worth studying. As the embodiment of Chinese origin philosophy, Chinese paper-cutting has a characteristic of comprehensive, decorative and auspicious. At the same time, Chinese folk paper-cutting tends to convey the meaning and essence of traditional culture with their own particular language.

On the points of color, Chinese paper-cutting has a difference between monochrome and chromatic. Monochrome paper-cutting is carved with single color, just like monochrome woodcut of engraving, it’s the most common form and such work is more simple and generous. On the other hand, chromatic paper-cutting is carved with different colors, such form is not common but also vivid.

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Chinese paper-cut, as one of the folk arts in China, has a long history.During the Northern and Southern Dynasty (386 – 581 A.D.), cutting out intricate patterns out of paper has become a tradition.This was the beginning of the art of Chinese Paper Cutting called Jian Zhi.The Song Dynasty greatly improved the paper making process and introduced different colors of paper. The paper cut craftsmen of the time put the colored paper to good use in their paper cut outs. In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, paper cutting art reached its peak to the point that it became a required skill for women before they can get married.
Today, China has many paper-cut artists specializing in paper cut outs. The knowledge usually was passed on by generations of paper artists in their family or home town.
In the ancient time, the paper-cut was used for decoration, and people usually paste patterns on the window, door lintel or desks for the festival atmosphere during the Spring Festival. It also was the decoration of the gifts.
This kind of folk art is all made by hand, and in China some people make a living by it. Though it only use a few kind of tools: knives, papers and gravers, they can make variety complicated patterns. For example, flowers, birds, animals, legendary people, figures in classic novels, to types of facial make-up in Peking opera.
In the past time, women who were living in the countryside usually gathered in their free time to make all kinds of paper cutting. But now, with the development of the society, fewer and fewer people like to learn the Chinese traditional folk art while there are some who still regard it as a profession.
Therefore, we will find many factories for paper cutting in China, and it is a little difficult for you to find some true hand-made paper cutting. Of cause, it is sure that there still has the true hand-made cutting. If you got one, it is very worth treasuring in your store.
Do you want to know more on the Chinese paper cutting, to the exhibitions and find some professional books you will find a lot in it.
There are also some other Chinese folk crafts, they are both practical and ornamental, fully reflecting the grace and depth of Chinese culture.

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Chinese Paper-cut is a kind of hollowed-out arts, which brings you a perspective feeling and beautiful artistic enjoying. Paper-cuts can be made out of paper, gold foil, bark, leaves, cloth, leather and other sheet materials.
Chinese paper-cut is one of the most popular folk art. According to the archaeology‘s record, the history of paper-cuts can be traced to the six century AD, but many people consider that it should be several hundred years earlier than the fact of its origin time. Chinese paper-cuts are often used in ritual, decoration and plastic arts.
In the past, there was a tradition in china. People liked to make some physicals and figures with hard paper, then buried with the dead or burned in the funeral. Now, this phenomenon still can be seen outside of China. Chinese paper-cuts generally had some symbol significance, that’s also the reason why it was used in the ritual etc. In addition, paper-cuts had also been used as decoration when offering sacrifices to gods or ancestors.
Nowadays, paper-cuts are more often used as decoration. Paper-cuts can decorate the house wall, door & window, pillars of house, mirror, light, lantern, and so on. Paper-cuts can be even as a gift to your friends. There was a time that paper-cuts were use as model of embroidery or painting.

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