Zhengguan news reporter Yang Zeya
Chang Yangyang learned paper-cutting with his grandmother since he was a child. At the age of 19, a chance paper-cutting work won an award, which led him to the road of professional paper-cutting. Today, he is not only a non-hereditary heir of Mengjin paper-cutting, but also has his own paper-cut store in his hometown of Luoyang, Henan, and at the same time, he has 240,000 fans who follow him in Douyin.
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Picking up a piece of big red paper in his left hand and holding scissors in his right hand, Chang Yangyang began his paper-cutting creation. After a minute or two, the palm-sized Pikachu is ready to finish. If the customer customizes other patterns that Chang Yangyang is not familiar with, looking at the mobile phone copy, he can also restore 90%. For more than 20 years of paper cutting, he has long been familiar with the techniques of paper cutting and rapid creation.
Post-90s, boys, paper-cutting, these three seemingly out-of-place words are perfectly integrated in Chang Yangyang. Since he was a child, he began to learn paper-cutting with his grandmother, and naturally he was indispensable to the vision of secular prejudice, and his classmates said that he was "strange" and ridiculed him as "strange", and he ignored it.
In 2010, Chang Yangyang coincidentally saw a paper-cutting competition on the Internet, and he participated in the competition with the mentality of trying it out, and the result also won the prize. In the competition, Chang Yangyang got to know many paper-cutting people, and he saw the possibility of professional paper-cutting from the countryside, and since then he has embarked on the road of professional paper-cutting.
More than ten years later, changyang Yang is not only a non-hereditary heir of Mengjin paper-cutting, but also has his own paper-cut store in his hometown of Luoyang, Henan, and at the same time, there are 240,000 fans who follow him in Douyin.
"Weird Kid" interested in paper-cutting
Chang Yang Yang's grandmother and aunt are good at paper cutting, and he has naturally developed a strong interest in this craft since he was a child. Since the age of 7, Chang Yangyang has followed his grandmother to learn the craft of paper cutting. From flowers, birds, insects and fish to small animals to wedding flowers, the young Chang Yangyang imitated his grandmother's gestures and learned one by one, and the palm-sized paper cut could be completed in ten minutes, "like magic".
After growing up, Chang Yangyang has never forgotten his grandmother's enlightenment on his paper-cutting. When he was a student, he always kept his scissors in his hands, and in the county or city calligraphy and painting competitions and children's talent competitions, Chang Yangyang was always able to win awards with paper cuts.
In the world's eyes, paper-cutting seems to have always been the exclusive preserve of elderly women. Young boys are keen on paper-cutting, and there are always voices around them. Classmates called him "weird" and laughed at him for being "weird": "Boys, who would cut this thing?" But Chang Yangyang feels that since the paper-cutting thing can make him happy, he doesn't have to pay attention to other people's opinions, "Anyway, I don't affect others, just do my own thing."
In high school, Chang Yangyang was still like this, with little interest in learning but only a love for paper cutting. Because of his poor grades, Chang Yangyang dropped out of school early in his sophomore year of high school and went to work in a Factory in Shenzhen with the young people of the same village.
The assembly line work is monotonous and tedious, and Chang Yangyang's job is to install capacitors and resistors on the assembly line for electronic components, three thousand pieces a month. "Except for the difference in the size of the things installed every day, the others are static, and there is never a state of excitement or happiness."
In his spare time, Chang Yangyang picked up the scissors again and used paper cuts to relieve the boredom. After work, the workers often went out to drink and play games together, and he went back to the dormitory, lying on the bed and began to cut paper.
A game that changed the fate
In 2010, by chance, Chang Yangyang saw on the Internet that Shanxi had the information of holding a Chinese New Year Paper-cutting Contest, and with the mentality of trying it out, he sent a work showing Mengjin Nian customs. "After four or five months, I forgot about it and informed me that I had won the award, so I went to Shanxi."
The work later won a bronze medal. Taking advantage of the competition, Chang Yangyang met more than 100 paper-cutting enthusiasts, including some professional paper-cutting people who make a living from paper-cutting skills. Chang Yangyang never thought that the paper-cutting that he regarded as a hobby to relieve boredom could be used as a career for a lifetime, and it was an intangible cultural heritage art with extremely high inheritance and protection value. Jumping out of the original life trajectory, Chang Yangyang discovered another possibility of his life: he quit his job in the factory and planned to make a living by cutting paper.
In the house of Mengjin's hometown, Chang Yangyang bought paper and tools and began to create. At that time, the neighbors in the same village did not understand him, and his parents did not support him, thinking that he was "not doing the right thing" . The stubborn Chang Yangyang did not pay attention to the voices of opposition from the outside world, but only responded: "I like to do what I want, why should I be forced to do what I don't like?" ”
In the first two years, Chang Yangyang just continued to submit articles to participate in competitions in various places, learn from the well-known paper-cutting people in the country, and live by the prize money taken by the competition. At home, "do not do serious things", young but no economic income, parents look in the eyes of the anxious in the heart, but Chang Yangyang is very open, "the family has land, can grow grain, will definitely be able to live."
The attitude of the paper-cutting teachers to Chang Yangyang as a professional paper-cutter is completely different from that of his old hometown relatives. There are young people who are willing to learn to cut paper, and everyone is very welcome. "The older generation of paper cutters will be very enthusiastic and talk to you a lot. In fact, their wish is to pass on the intangible art of paper cutting. ”
Slowly, The matter of Chang Yangyang was paid attention to by the local TV station, and more people knew about this young man with good paper-cutting technology. After becoming popular in the local area, some people drove to buy his works, and some exhibitions came to the door. Chang Yangyang's life became busy, and his parents gradually stopped opposing it.
Non-hereditary heir in the live broadcast room
As the youngest inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage project Mengjin paper-cutting, the outside world has more and more recognition of Changyang Yang paper-cutting. In 2013, he opened his first paper-cut shop in Mengjin, and in 2015, he reopened a small shop in the old city of Luoyang and continued to open a second store. Affected by the epidemic, one of them was closed in 2020.
In 2018, Chang YangYang opened a Douyin account @ paper-cutting Chang Yang Yang to help himself publicize. The video that was just posted at the beginning had only one or two dozen likes, and more than a year later, it only accumulated more than 1,000 fans. He began experimenting with live streaming, but with little success. In the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2020, Chang Yangyang, who was looking down at the paper cutting, inadvertently looked up and found that the fans in the live broadcast room suddenly became more than a thousand people, and after less than ten minutes, the fans in the live broadcast room rose to 10,000 people. Although he didn't know what was going on, he was "excited" and began to explain paper cutting to everyone. At the time of the most people on the day, 40,000 people were online at the same time in the live broadcast room. Now, the 240,000 fans that Chang Yangyang's Douyin has are basically from live broadcasts. He broadcasts live twice a week for about three hours at a time, mainly focusing on on-site paper-cutting and explanation.
Exhibiting, live broadcasting, and paper cutting, Chang Yangyang's life is gradually on the right track. He is the only person in charge of paper-cutting in the store, and during the New Year or holidays, Chang Yangyang will be particularly busy, "Everyone will think that paper-cutting is the representative of the New Year's taste, and there will be many orders for enterprises or commercial activities."
Affected by the epidemic, changyang yang's paper-cutting shop has not had any business in the past two years. It was also in the past two years that Chang Yangyang put his paper-cut works on the Douyin platform. Through Douyin e-commerce, he passed on the art of paper-cutting to all corners of China, met paper-cutting enthusiasts throughout China, and opened online paper-cutting sales. Douyin with goods helped Chang Yangyang tide over the difficult period of entrepreneurship affected by the epidemic, and opened up a new form of inheriting traditional culture.
Chang Yangyang said: "Through new channels such as Douyin e-commerce, more young people can fall in love with paper-cutting and pass it on, in fact, they are also preserving these memories of traditional Chinese culture." The same is true for douyin with goods, for intangible cultural heritage, buying is the best protection. ”
Edit: Shi Chuang
Coordinator: Shi Chuang