A pair of scissors, a piece of red paper, a pair of clever hands holding sharp scissors around, insects, fish, birds and beasts, pavilion bridge scenery, flowers and trees, etc. will come to life, jumping on the paper.
Paper-cutting art has a history of more than a thousand years in Xiaoyi, as a native intangible cultural heritage, after the baptism of the long river of history, generation after generation of oral transmission, hand-in-hand, Xiaoyi folk will pass on this skill to this day. Nowadays, under the attention and protection of all parties, Xiaoyi Paper-cutting is looking forward to colliding with the new era again.
Not left behind
As a form of expression of Han folk art, Xiaoyi paper-cutting has been declared as "Shanxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Project". According to the "Records of Xiaoyi County", Xiaoyi paper-cutting has a long history, and most of the works still retain the traditional line structure technique, which is full of the ancient relics of Han Dynasty stone carvings, seeking truth in exaggeration, seeking god in deformation, simplicity and richness, and symbolizing in thoroughness.
In order to inherit this art, in 2005, Xiaoyi University for the Elderly opened a paper-cutting flower class, and in 2009, it was separated from the flower class, and the paper-cutting class became an independent team, with Wu Yulian as the teacher. Up to now, the paper-cutting class has become a unique class of the university for the elderly, and many students' works have won many awards in national, provincial and municipal exhibition competitions, becoming an excellent paper-cutting team active in Filial Piety.
Xiaoyi paper-cutting is rich in content, diverse in form and unique in shape, with both the rugged and bold of northern Xinjiang and the delicate beauty of southern China. The main themes are characters, beasts, flowers and birds, grass worms, pavilions, utensils, auspicious patterns, opera stories, myths and legends, shadow puppet imitations, etc., of which the works with harmonic sounds implying happiness, auspicious and festive are the most common. In terms of technique, some are as delicate and delicate as white brush strokes, and some are bold and bold like Chinese paintings.
Ingenious conception and rough and generous cutting skills are one of the characteristics of Xiaoyi folk paper-cutting art;
The variety of styles and strong three-dimensional sense are the second characteristics of Xiaoyi folk paper-cutting art;
Rich imagination, exaggeration and romantic artistic techniques are the third characteristic of Xiaoyi folk paper-cutting art;
Pushing out the old and reflecting the new era is one of the characteristics of the filial piety folk paper-cutting art.
Xiaoyi folk artists paper-cutting, are characterized by beautification of life, their paper-cutting works, like a beautiful and moving folk song, pinning their yearning for a better life and sincere feelings, so that people deeply feel the wisdom and greatness of the working people.
Inheritance
Wu Yulian is a provincial inheritor of Xiaoyi folk paper-cutting skills and has been learning paper-cutting for more than 20 years. "When I was a child, I often watched the women in the village cut paper, full of beauty and fascination." Wu Yulian said that it has always been her wish to cut out a beautiful vision of life and inherit the excellent traditional culture of red and heavy.
"Ye chased the golden knife out, the flower with the jade refers to the new", since childhood like folk art Wu Yulian quit his job in 1998, specializing in paper-cutting, has now created thousands of excellent works, in 2002 for the first time to participate in the national paper-cutting competition, the work "Dragon Dance" won the silver medal, and was collected by the National Museum, in 2004 the work "Twenty-four Filial Piety" paper-cutting on the "Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Filial Piety Paper-cutting". "Thousands of works, even in the same style, do not have two duplicate paper cuts." In the creative process, Wu Yulian also attaches great importance to the innovation of cutting.
As a hobby, Wu Yulian has never given up the pursuit of paper-cutting, she actively explores and practices, innovates and boldly tries, and carries forward and inherits this "art of walking at the fingertips". In 2016, the "Xiaoyi Wu Yulian Folk Art Studio" was established, Wu Yulian began to run for the inheritance of paper-cutting art, she hopes that more people will understand and learn this artistic wonder, and hope that folk art will not be lost.
Over the years, Wu Yulian has taught more than 1,000 paper-cutting staff through the paper-cutting class of Xiaoyi University for the Elderly and jiajiazhuang Art Center. At the same time, she also uses holidays and holidays to train primary school students to learn paper-cutting. It is reported that more than 30 paper-cutting elites have been trained, some have become provincial and municipal inheritors, some have participated in paper-cutting exhibitions in the country and provinces and cities and won awards, and some have opened stores specializing in folk crafts.
Nowadays, there are many paper-cutting artists like Wu Yulian in Xiaoyi, who have always adhered to their original intentions, committed to the creation of paper-cutting and the inheritance of skills, and dedicated their strength to the folk art of Filial Piety.
Folklore
Paper-cutting is also a popular cultural form in the life of filial piety and is deeply loved by women. Because the paper-cutting tools are simple and easy to teach, in the process of teaching and use, they have experienced the natural development of art and content, so that the paper-cutting art of Filial Piety has always been full of vitality and enduring.
During the Spring Festival, I met Wu Yulian at the "Wu Yulian Folk Art Studio", where she was creating paper-cut works full of flavor. I saw a pair of scissors in her hand meandering forward on the red paper, and in a few moments, a beautiful window flower paper-cut work was presented in front of the author.
"The New Year window sticker is not only a form, but also a culture, a symbol of the Chinese is red and red, with this New Year's flavor, it is considered the New Year." The Spring Festival has a more profound significance for Wu Yulian. The red window flowers on the glass are her emotional sustenance and cultural adherence to the traditional customs of the Spring Festival for decades.
Cut as the way, paper to communicate. In the early years, the people of Xiaoyi used paper-cutting to perform sacrifices, blessings and entertainment in the traditional Folk Life of the New Year Festival. Every wedding celebration, housewarming, New Year's Festival, etc., the doors and windows of every household are plastered with various festive paper cuts representing auspiciousness, which are colorful and dazzling. Paper-cutters decorate the environment with their dexterous hands to express their love of life.
Nowadays, paper-cutting artists no longer stick to the traditional paper-cutting pattern, but combine traditional paper-cutting with modern concepts, constantly innovate, reflect the beautiful real life from different sides and angles, some praise the motherland's great rivers and mountains, some show the fruitful results of the working people, some show children playing, some portray historical stories and mythological characters, through a pair of scissors, a piece of red paper, vividly express the implications.
Over the millennia, filial piety's paper-cutting artists have long been all over the city and countryside, and generation after generation will be attached to the art of paper-cutting attached to folk activities, passing on the torch, until today it exudes more charming brilliance. (Text/Zhang Liyan Photo/Jiang Jianlin)