Fold the red paper, hold the scissors in hand, and successively apply knife methods such as serrated patterns, water droplet patterns, crescent patterns and so on... On the 16th, Huang Meifang, a senior teacher at Beishan Middle School in Lianzhou City, demonstrated paper-cutting to students in the paper-cutting class, but in about 1 minute, a paper-cutting work "Tuanhua" was completed.
The teachers' skills are superb and the students are interested, which has become the norm in the school. Not long ago, Lianzhou Beishan Middle School was recognized by the General Office of the Ministry of Education as the "Third Batch of National Primary and Secondary School Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture Inheritance Schools", and its inheritance project is paper-cutting. The school won this honor, which is the only one in Qingyuan.
Huang Meifang completed the paper-cut work "Tuanhua" in 1 minute. Photo by Huang Jin
Huang Meifang is teaching paper-cutting skills to students. Photo by Huang Jin
Passing on intangible cultural heritage
Create a characteristic school of paper-cutting art
Lianzhou Beishan Middle School is a junior high school with 4,043 teachers and students, and is one of the schools with distinctive sports and art characteristics in Qingyuan area. In recent years, the school has reached a consensus on promoting the development of the school and creating school characteristics, and has taken the development of art characteristic courses as a beautiful school project.
"Since 2004, the school has opened paper-cutting interest classes." Huang Meifang introduced, especially after the provincial project "Let Paper-cutting Teaching Enter the Art Classroom of Mountain Junior High Schools" research in 2013, Beishan Middle School officially integrated paper-cutting into students' classrooms, starting from the basic methods of teaching, integrating network resources, copying and design, striving to inherit intangible cultural heritage, and creating a paper-cutting art characteristic school.
On the 2nd floor of the school, there is a special "paper-cutting class" classroom, and a paper-cutting class is held every week. "When I was a child, I saw window flower paper cuts on TV, and I thought it was beautiful, how did they cut it out? It seems magical," Qiu Zitong, a student in the third (14th) class of the school, told reporters, saying that in the first semester of the first semester of the first year of junior high school, she joined the paper-cutting art class and began to contact this intangible cultural heritage craft.
From learning knife techniques, to copying works, to designing works, she feels that her hands-on ability and image thinking ability have been improved. "I think it's a process of discovering and enjoying beauty," Qiu Zitong said of learning to cut paper. Whenever the learning bottleneck encounters, she will sit down and cut a work, "through paper cutting, you can empty your mind, release the pressure of learning, and achieve the effect of regulating your psychology." ”
Qiu Zitong's paper-cut work "Flowers Blossom rich". Photo by Huang Jin
At the school, there are many students like Qiu Zitong who like to cut paper. Huang Meifang introduced that after more than 10 years of exploration, the school has accumulated rich experience in paper-cutting teaching, explored some methods to adapt to the development of students' physical and mental characteristics, and the "paper-cutting art" activity class has formed a certain scale in the school. "We have opened ordinary classes and improvement classes in stages, students have participated in a wide range, each student has mastered the basic knowledge and skills of paper-cutting, and the school's paper-cutting art class has gradually realized the development of subjects, curriculums and scientific research."
Student paper-cut works. Photo by Huang Jin
Paper-cut works. Photo by Huang Jin
In December 2019, the school was rated as the "first batch of Chinese excellent traditional culture inheritance schools in primary and secondary schools in Guangdong Province" by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, and in December 2021, it was recognized as "the third batch of national primary and secondary school Chinese excellent traditional culture inheritance schools".
Heritage and innovation
Paper-cutting into Lianzhou cultural characteristics
Huiguang Pagoda, Yanxi Pavilion, Lifting God... In the school's "paper-cutting class" classroom, many works by teachers and students are displayed. The reporter found that many of the works were related to the history and culture of Lianzhou.
Huang Meifang's paper-cut work "Impression Lianzhou".
Huang Meifang's paper-cut work "Yan Xi Ting".
Huang Meifang believes that the development of paper-cutting courses in primary and secondary schools has positive significance for students to participate in the inheritance and exchange of culture, cultivate students' practical ability and innovative spirit, and play a very important role in promoting national culture and strengthening patriotic education.
Teachers and students at Kitayama School display huge paper-cut works.
"Therefore, we integrate local cultural elements and modern elements into paper-cutting teaching, so that paper-cutting courses are closely related to students' life experience," Huang Meifang told reporters, adding that the school pays attention to inheritance and innovation in paper-cutting art teaching, so as to glow the style of traditional art and produce excellent art education results.
Huang Meifang is a senior teacher of junior high school art, a famous teacher in Qingyuan City, and the host of Qingyuan Famous Teacher Studio, who has been teaching for 22 years as a circular teaching and paper-cutting interest class course in junior high school art, with solid professional basic knowledge and rich practical experience in paper-cutting teaching.
In 2019, she led the "Research on the Integration of Local Characteristic Materials into Paper-cutting Classrooms in Primary and Secondary Schools in Mountainous Areas". "With the continuous improvement of students' core literacy training requirements and the long-term development plan of the school, the development of the school's paper-cutting characteristic teaching has reached a bottleneck, how to further increase the intensity of inheritance and innovation, and break through the bottleneck of development has become a top priority for the development of the school's artistic characteristics." Talking about the original intention, she said.
Paper-cutting comes from life, from nature. "In addition to the ready-made patterns created by the ancestors, there are more materials in daily life and nature," Huang Meifang introduced, allowing paper-cutting to be associated with the local area and closely linking art and life, which can not only enrich the content of paper-cutting classes, improve students' interest, but also inspire students' creative inspiration.
"Art teaching in primary and secondary schools in mountainous areas should pay attention to the excavation of local culture and art, and Lianzhou is an ancient city with a deep cultural and historical heritage, with beautiful natural scenery and distinct local characteristics of art and culture." The integration of local cultural elements into the paper-cutting teaching, the paper-cutting course is closely related to the students' life experience, and the innovation is carried out while inheriting folk art, which has a profound impact on students to inherit and carry forward the Chinese culture and love the culture of their hometown. Huang Meifang said.
Winning the honor of "the third batch of national primary and secondary school Chinese excellent traditional culture inheritance schools" is not only an affirmation but also a new beginning for Beishan Middle School. The person in charge of the school said that in the future, the school will continue to inherit and innovate the excellent traditional culture of paper-cutting art on campus based on the local characteristics of Lianzhou City, so as to perceive, experience, protect, inherit and carry forward the characteristic culture of folk art, improve students' aesthetic taste, cultivate their hands-on ability, stimulate their creative ability, and then enhance their local feelings and patriotic feelings, and establish national self-confidence and pride.
[Reporter] Huang Jin
【Author】 Huang Jin
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client