From the age of 9, she began to learn paper-cutting with her grandmother and grandmother, and Dong Linmei, a nearly 50-year-old non-hereditary heir of paper-cutting in Yuyang District, has lost count of how many exquisite paper-cuttings she has cut out in her hands, one by one award certificates, paper-cuts hanging all over the walls, and quietly tells her hard journey.
Influenced by elders, I like to cut paper
Since childhood, he has been a "skillful hand" in the village.
Dong Linmei, 49, was born in a small village in Qinhe Township, Yuyang District. Due to her poor family, Dong Linmei knew how to help her family share the farm work, herd sheep, and cultivate the land at a very young age... The tempering from childhood has also created Dong Linmei's tenacious character.
"When I was a child, my family didn't do much farming and didn't read much, but I did a lot of delicate work at home at that time." Dong Linmei said that since I can remember, I can always see my grandmother with scissors to cut out a beautiful paper cut, which also aroused his curiosity, whether it is when shedding sheep or when going out to play, painting goats, painting birds... Draw whatever little animal you see.
Under the influence of her grandmother, Dong Linmei gradually became a "skillful hand" in the family, and her paper-cutting was also known to the villagers in the eight villages. "Every New Year's Festival, red and white celebrations, the villagers ask me to cut paper for them to add joy." Dong Linmei said that the most cut is the window flower, bucket square, turning flowers, happy flowers, zodiac signs, characters, but also some superstitious small paper people, support deer and horses and the like, but also from this time on he felt that paper cutting will be an indispensable part of his life.
Time flies, and Dong Linmei, who has reached marriageable age, married into a small village in Yuhejiao, Yuyang District, but after marriage, she is not idle, and here she gives her paper-cutting experience to her neighbors without reservation. But the good times are not long, due to the pressure of life, Dong Linmei can only leave her beloved paper-cut to go out to work, but suffering from lack of culture is often rejected by others. "I thought at that time that I might as well go home and cut paper, although it was very bitter and tired and there was no stable income, but freedom, no matter what I wanted to draw and cut, I would not be interfered with by others, I wanted to cut my freedom, my life into my paper cutting." 」 Dong Linmei said that in the following years, she continued to improve and won awards in some competitions, but she always felt that the paper cutting had reached a bottleneck.
In order to improve her own paper-cutting art level, Dong Linmei visited Zhang Xiaomei, a master of Yulin paper-cutting, as a teacher, and began to think hard to improve her paper-cutting level and traditional culture. "In the days when I studied paper-cutting with my master, I made a lot of progress, and gradually began to create some paper-cut works with cultural connotations." Dong Linmei said that she always remembered a sentence of her master, "Either don't do it, do it well", which is also the consistent idea of creating paper-cutting, "Either don't cut, if you want to cut, you must cut well".
Actively participate in social welfare
Training residents to cut paper increased by nearly 100,000 yuan
Under the careful teaching of Zhang Xiaomei, Dong Linmei has won many honorary titles such as "Shaanxi Provincial Master of Arts and Crafts" and "The First Prize of the Paper-cutting Project of the Fifth China Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo". Her paper-cut work "Putian Tongqing" was selected as a souvenir of the National Day reception celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, which made Dong Linmei even more determined to pass on this intangible cultural heritage and carry it forward. "In recent years, I have begun to give paper-cutting classes to Yulin College, Yulin No. 4 Middle School, training classes for the disabled, and the community." Dong Linmei said that this will not only teach his beloved paper-cutting skills to future generations, but also dig up some talented inheritors.
"I met Teacher Dong when I was studying at Yulin College, and now that I think about it, I have a lot of luck." Zheng Jinliang, who worked in Yan'an after graduation, said that he met Dong Linmei by chance in a school class, and since then he has intersected. In his view, Dong Linmei not only inherited the traditional art of paper-cutting, but also had some more understanding of paper-cutting culture.
Zheng Jinliang told the China Business Daily-Ersanli reporter that Dong Linmei's paper-cutting mainly tends to be realistic style, which not only includes the innovation of modern art but also the inheritance of traditional culture, which he feels is very good. The reason why things like folklore can be passed down for hundreds of years is through continuous inheritance and innovation, so as to give it vitality and vitality, and Dong Linmei is the person who inherits and constantly innovates.
"I not only want to pass on the intangible cultural heritage, but also want this craft to become a helper for everyone to increase their income and become rich." Dong Linmei said that as of now, he has trained more than 300 people, many residents have a lot of income, some residents have saved nearly 100,000 yuan by paper cutting, and their monthly income has been basically stable at 3,000 yuan.
Huashang Daily reporter Qi Ming Editor Zhang Han