Zhongxin Network Ningxia Hongsi Fort February 18 Title: Ningxia Intangible Cultural Heritage Artists: Obsessed with Paper-Cutting Room
China News Network reporter Yang Di
"Paper-cutting is my biggest hobby, and when I get home from work and finish my meal, I go to my workbench and start cutting paper, often until 12 p.m." In a recent interview with a reporter from China News Network, Ma Lingyan, the inheritor of Wuzhong Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Paper-cutting, laughed and said that if he did not cut paper for a day, he would "itch his hands".
Ma Lingyan and her daughter cut paper together. Photo by Yang Di
Walking into the studio of Ma Lingyan, the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage paper-cutting in Hongsibao District, Wuzhong City, Ningxia, various paper-cut works such as characteristic tuanhua, animal portraits, and human portraits are dazzling.
Ma Lingyan is the third generation of intangible paper-cutting inheritors in his family. "When I was young, whenever the people in the village had a festive occasion, they would ask my mother and grandmother to show their hands and cut some window flowers and the word 'joy'." Under the influence of the elders, Ma Lingyan also liked paper-cutting, and could draw independently at the age of seven or eight, and he could create simple paper-cutting works by himself at the age of eleven.
Ma Lingyan instructed her daughter to cut paper. Photo by Yang Di
In Ma Lingyan's view, paper-cutting is the best "playmate" to accompany himself since childhood. "When I was a child, my family was poor, paper cutting was my toy, usually I went to my home to cut and play with my classmates after school, there was no red paper at that time, I took waste newspaper and homework paper and cut and played."
In 2001, Ma Lingyan came from his hometown to Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, to study, and used his spare time to systematically learn paper-cutting and constantly hone his skills.
A piece of red paper, a pair of scissors, a carving knife... Under the ingenuity of Ma Lingyan, a series of lifelike paper-cut works were born. In the process of creation, Ma Lingyan also added pattern elements with local characteristics such as bowl tea and "Three Treasures of Red Temple Fort" to make his works more grounded.
"After the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, I created a fifteen-meter-long anti-epidemic paper-cut scroll at home, which is my proudest work." Ma Lingyan said that the work took nearly three months to show the spirit of the local people fighting the epidemic.
Ma Lingyan and her daughter display paper-cut works. Photo by Yang Di
"Let us see your beautiful heart through the cutout of the paper." In Ma Lingyan's studio, this slogan is particularly eye-catching. Ma Lingyan confessed that she was a relatively inferior and introverted person since she was a child, but the paper cut opened a window for her, making her intoxicated and pinned her soul.
Ma Lingyan's love of paper-cutting also infected her family. "My daughter and son have been learning paper-cutting with me, and now they can create their own works, and my husband has also learned mounting techniques for me." Ma Lingyan laughed and said that there was a full set of paper-cutting utensils in his home.
Today, Ma Lingyan works as a Chinese teacher in a primary school and is also a paper-cutting teacher in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage" activity, teaching skills to students. When it comes to the promotion and inheritance of paper-cutting, she is very confident, "Now paper-cutting, shadow puppetry, and drama often appear on the screen, and I think China's traditional culture will definitely get better and better, and paper-cutting will definitely be liked by more and more people." (End)