Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News reporter Zhu Lizhen
Tiger, the length of a hundred beasts, in Chinese folk, it is also a town house, the mascot to ward off evil spirits, the image of the tiger's head and tiger brain pinned on people's yearning and pursuit of a better life.
In Xiangshan County, Ningbo, the welcome works of Xie Caihua, the 78-year-old representative inheritor of the Xiangshan paper-cutting project of the provincial intangible cultural heritage project, arrived as scheduled, and 350 tiger paper-cuttings welcomed the Year of the Tiger.
Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old charms. With these lifelike and different shapes of the Year of the Tiger paper cutouts, let's welcome the spring of the new year.
In 4 months, 350 paper cuts in the Year of the Tiger and 2022 tiger window flowers were cut
How many different shapes can there be in the Year of the Tiger paper cut? Xie Caihua answered with practical actions - 350 paper cuts, each of which is a tiger, the shape and shape are different, some tigers have a harvest of children, some turn around and roar, some are lanterns, Fuzi shapes, and some are cut into crabs, koi...
Since this year's National Day, Xie Caihua has tried to create paper-cut works with the theme of the Year of the Tiger. From modeling, paper cutting to post-mounting, five or six hours were spent every night, and it took nearly 4 months before and after.
"Folk especially like tiger shape, there is a meaning of warding off evil spirits, so there are many forms, usually pay more attention, coupled with their own ideas, created some new styles, and cut out the works one by one on the red paper." These 350 paper cuts in the Year of the Tiger were made into display boards and displayed at the Xiangshan Talent Paper-cut Art Museum.
In addition to this group of paper-cut works in the Year of the Tiger, Xie Caihua also created 2022 window flowers for the Year of the Tiger, which were given to the public free of charge. "Sometimes when I participate in some activities, I give away some, and a total of more than 1,000 paintings have been given away, and the rest will be delivered before Chinese New Year's Eve night."
In addition to this year's paper-cutting in the Year of the Tiger, almost every Spring Festival, Xie Caihua will appear in his own zodiac-themed paper-cutting works. In 2021, he created the 2021 paper-cut works of "100 Cows Welcoming Spring", and the cattle with different shapes formed a work with a total length of 50 meters and a height of 1 meter, which took 3 months to create.
Cutting out spring with scissors is his unique way of welcoming.
Paper cut for more than 60 years, set two Guinness records
In 1944, Xie Caihua was born in Chen Zhang'ao Village, Shandong Province, which is called "Paper-cutting Village", and the craft of paper-cutting is a major local feature, every New Year's Festival, marriage and funeral, almost every household has the habit of paper-cutting. A pair of scissors, freely wielded on the flaky material between "square inches" such as red paper, gold and silver foil, creates the art of hollowing out.
In addition to the traditional theme paper-cutting creation, patterns such as the sea, waves, fishing nets, boats, fishery production and life scenes, fish, shrimp and conch and other marine elements also appear frequently in Xiangshan paper-cutting. In 2012, Xiangshan paper-cutting was included in the fourth batch of Zhejiang Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
Xie Caihua, a provincial-level non-hereditary heir of Xiangshan paper-cutting, picked up scissors at the age of 6 and learned paper-cutting with his mother Yu Fengming and neighbor Gao Miaolan.
Gao Miaolan is a representative figure of Xiangshan peasant painting, good at depicting flowers, embroidery, paper cutting, making hydrangea balls and cloth colors, and has created more than 3,000 peasant paintings, paper-cutting and embroidery works in his lifetime, and many works have been treasured by many museums and art galleries at home and abroad. In addition to learning from everyone, Xie Caihua's family has always had a paper-cutting heritage. "By my generation, I was already the fourth generation of paper-cutting artists, and later my daughter and granddaughter also learned to cut paper."
Since the age of 16, he began to create independent paper-cutting, and Xie Caihua has been cutting paper for more than 60 years. Before his retirement, he was a civil servant, working during the day and studying creation at night; after retirement, he put more energy into paper cutting and achieved a lot of achievements.
In 2000, Xie Caihua won the honorary certificate of the largest number of paper-cut works, the largest number of pieces and the most length issued by the Guinness Headquarters of Shanghai Great World; in 2003, Xie Caihua broke his own record with the largest number of paper-cut works (89 sets), the largest number (12,000 pieces), and the longest cumulative (4,000 meters), setting another "Guinness Of the Most", of which the largest 47 square paper cut "Harmony Diagram" consisted of 56 dragons, 56 phoenixes, 56 fish, It is composed of 56 unicorns and 56 lotus flowers, representing the unity of 56 ethnic groups and family affinity.
Life goes on, creation goes on. The scissors in Xie Caihua's hand have not stopped. Recently, he spent 6 years creating more than 500 character paper cuts in the "Four Masterpieces", which has been freshly baked. "The creation of 'Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty' is also in progress, and we will strive to complete it as soon as possible."
Prepare for the establishment of a paper-cutting hall and open free training courses
Paper-cutting for more than 60 years, behind the works, is Xie Caihua's diligence and selfless dedication. He uses scissors and paper in his hand to record the trivialities of life and the scenery of the fields, and his works keep up with the pulse of the times, giving the traditional paper-cutting art a modern fashion sense, and each piece of paper-cutting carries his expectations for a better life.
In order to let the traditional skill of paper-cutting be understood by more young people, in 2005, Xie Caihua sold a house, invested all his savings, and with government funding, built the country's first paper-cutting museum - Talent Paper-cutting Art Museum in Zhang'ao Village. After completion, he donated more than 5,000 square meters of paper-cutting halls and paper-cut works that condensed his life's painstaking efforts to the state free of charge and displayed them free of charge in the art museum. The most distinctive feature in the museum is more than 300 paper cuts on the theme of honest government culture, which include ancient clean officials and honest officials, contemporary heroic models and other figures, and have also been awarded the title of "Provincial Integrity Culture and Education Base".
In addition to displaying paper-cut works, Xie Caihua also volunteered to serve as the "administrator" of the paper-cutting hall, the "lecturer" of the moral lecture hall and the "lecturer" of folk art. So far, the paper-cutting hall has received more than 150,000 party members, cadres and students, and more than 200,000 tourists.
In Xie Caihua's heart, paper-cutting is not only a "unique beauty" thing, he hopes that this skill can be spread more widely.
In order to better inherit the folk skills of paper-cutting, in the past 16 years, Xie Caihua has opened training courses in the paper-cutting hall, and more than 300 women in Zhang'ao Village have received education and training. At the same time, he also cooperated with Dongchen Primary School, Dongchen Kindergarten, Xiangshan County University for the Aged, Haiyun Kindergarten and so on to open paper-cutting courses. At present, nearly 10,000 students have received paper-cutting training, and he also regularly teaches more than 500 students in 7 schools.
"Most of them are primary school students, some schools go to class once a week, and some schools like Ningbo University, I will go to training from time to time." What makes Xie Caihua proud is that many foreign friends will also learn paper-cutting from him, and his works "Mandarin Duck", "Window Flower" and "Magpie" are collected by the Windsor Castle Museum in London, which promotes Chinese paper-cutting to the world.
In 2021, Xie Caihua's paper-cutting art studio settled in Ningbo Health Vocational and Technical College, giving more students from colleges and universities the opportunity to contact this traditional skill and protect, inherit and carry forward the art of paper-cutting.
The 350 tiger paper-cuttings are Xie Caihua's way of welcoming the spring, and he also cuts out a piece of spring of paper-cutting skills through scissors and pieces of paper in his hand.
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