The boring daily commute makes most workers sleepy while catching the subway, but if you are in the newly opened "Chinese style" subway station in Moscow, it is likely that you will suddenly wake up.
△ Source: @ Take you to the USSR
This underground palace with cold lights, black and white ornamentation and large red steel columns... The brain has automatically played BGM "囍", and as soon as it came out, the subway that roared by was like a special train for marriage, announcing the message of the prefectural government's happy event.
This is like a paper-tied ornament, where is the Chinese style subway station, it is clearly a "hades wind" subway station.
And this year's Tao Taoju grand launch of the Mid-Autumn Mooncake gift box, but also because of the design of the "paper wind" quickly out of the circle - according to the memory of personal netizens, at the moment of dismantling the express, I thought I had another Mid-Yuan Festival.
The green refrigerator-shaped packaging, the straight lines, the solid texture, the highly saturated green shell, and the shiny silver lining, let the mooncake unexpectedly get the value of "buy one get one free" - eat the mooncake in the sun, and the exquisite packaging can also be burned.
After all, this level, even in the paper world, is also ranked.
Papier-mâché, veritable grounding art, always creeps up a storm in your little heart with a subtlety that is between image and somewhat unreal.
There are three treasures of Chinese horror: paper man, coffin, and charm.
No one's childhood has not been frightened by the paper man who suddenly moved in the Old Ghost Film of Hong Kong with two blushing faces and cried - for most people, all paper products are "supernatural products" first, and then "crafts".
This also makes people who always vaguely feel that papier-mâché is "obscure" and ignore the real situation: in fact, papier-mâché is rolled up like other folk traditional techniques.
In the context of the national fight against the epidemic, the new crown vaccine, infrared thermometer, disinfectant alcohol, masks and other paper-tied epidemic prevention supplies in the sacrifice shop have no worries and no sales.
Although people often say that "there is no pain in heaven", in the face of the new crown, there are still customers who have asked the paper master to make a ventilator.
While many people's impression of papier-mâché is still stuck in the local flavor of big red and green, contemporary papier-mâché craftsmen keep up with the trend of the times, so that papier-mâché integrates modern technology into the form of expression.
Burning the iPhone to the ancestors is not a strange thing, in the current 5G popularization, the new paper tie 5G version of the iPhone is the most emotional thing is that it is actually equipped with charging heads, headphones, charging cables and other accessories.
This paper-tied mansion from Taiwan is equipped with light bulbs, and also uses electronic technology to realize that the paper-tied "can walk and move", if you do not look at the size and use, this degree of refinement, put into reality, will definitely attract hipsters to punch in and take photos to become a popular attraction.
△ Source: PALACE PARADIS exhibition
In Taiwan, the paper is not in the slightest shade, and many paper-tied brand shoes and uniforms, toy dolls, furniture mansions, properly walk on the Taiwanese small fresh route, a quiet age, the appearance of the afterlife.
△ Taiwan skea paradise paper tying shop launched the nostalgic paper tying building
Looking at the paper tie world, the variety of paper tie products is beyond people's imagination.
There is no department store in the world that can guarantee customers that they have everything, but paper shops can. From appliances to food, from real estate to toys... From a certain point of view, the production scope of the paper company is No.1.
△ From induction cooker to dipping sauce, paper-tied hot pot set is a lot
△ The current popular underworld electrical appliances
Considering the lives of the ancestors, not only the personal doctors, nannies and housekeepers who sent paper ties intimately, but also the chauffeurs who sent luxury cars did not forget to wear suits and leather shoes.
As a one-stop service center for the life of the underworld, the paper shop must not only realize the material needs of the people in the prefecture, but also realize the more advanced spiritual needs of customers.
Paper-tied tablets, not only in appearance to deeply restore, the app installed on the homepage should also try to be thorough, from photography, social networking, games, recipes... Everything is available, even the little ghost icon on the address book app can see the elaborate cuteness and ensure the user experience.
△ Paper tied pad
Considering the pricing, paper tying can be called the industry that combines "private customization" and "mass production" with the deepest popularity.
For example, in Taiwan, if a papier-mâché apprentice cannot independently complete a pair of papier-mâché blue and white slippers that satisfy customers, it is likely that he will not be able to successfully get out of the master under the master--they must understand that for Taiwanese people, the pair of papier-mâché blue and white drags given to their deceased relatives is not only to simulate the color matching, but also to simulate the unique cut that has lasted for a long time in the Taiwanese foot feeling.
Whether it's making a paper-tied pet house for a dead pet, or a custom baking house for a deceased loved one, customizing their favorite musical instrument, paper-tied craftsmen can always bring some sun warmth to the funeral from the details.
△ Paper tie custom bakery
△ "Electric Guitar" and "Megaphone" made by Hong Kong Papier-mâché artist for Wong Ka-koo
It can be said that if all walks of life gather to conduct an "industry customer satisfaction" survey, the paper tie industry in which payment customers fill out questionnaires instead of final customers will definitely win the championship, after all, there is no other industry in the world that can swear: we can achieve unfinished wishes and dreams.
If there is another industry that provides such inexpensive products and services as the paper tie industry, it will not maintain the sense of existence in an almost humble position like the paper tie industry.
On the contrary, you will find that if other industries are found to be "aesthetically influenced by paper-tied winds", it will be "finished"——
Universal Studios Beijing's Kung Fu Panda Theme Room to take a look at it - the simple design of the red lantern, dim lighting, the decorations on the bedside inspired by the human rickshaw shelter at the beginning of the last century, the strange new Chinese style furniture, any ghost film director who looks at it will say good.
During the day, the lights are on, and at night, everything presents a special texture of paper, which makes people unable to contact the movie picture of kung fu panda at all, but only reminds people of the scene of the secret marriage.
As you may have noticed, it seems that the Orientalism or Chinese style in the understanding of foreign friends seems to be inseparable from the paper style.
Remember Disney Princess Mulan's co-branded shoes? The Mulan high heels, named "Braveheart", look at the pink and bright green color tone, the retro embroidery, and the large pink lotus flowers dotted on the toe, it is indeed difficult to wear without a brave heart.
To be honest, it is not because the design is not good-looking, mainly it looks like paper, which makes people worry that this high heel will be flattened after two steps.
If the above example can also be used as a coincidence that foreigners do not understand Chinese culture, then the grand exhibition of Chinese paper ties abroad shows that foreigners really like paper ties culture without any mustard.
In 2019, France held an art exhibition called "Paradise of Elysium", which even appeared on the well-known French art guide and was selected as one of the top ten must-see exhibitions in Paris that year.
The works in the exhibition are from two paper-tied teams in Taiwan, and the paper-tied spiritual houses and gods at the exhibition are full of traditional charm with fine decoration and color matching.
There are also elaborate modern life with the emerging paper tying technique: new mobile phones and tablets, fashion luxury goods, hot pots, hamburgers, bicycles... When the paper tie appeared in the form of daily life, the foreigners were stunned.
When foreigners know that paper ties will eventually have to be burned to complete the end use as a commodity, it means that the way in which the original Chinese treats death is an extreme romance.
In this regard, the upper class can only say: This kind of romance you like is good, that is, do not use the big name joint name, we are afraid that when we buy a home, we will be taken to the grave by grandma.
In the folk, although the "tie-in" is not on the list of "nine streams and ten arts", and is often managed by the smith, the paper-tying technique covers many kinds of skills such as smiths, painters, calligraphy, paper-cutting, etc., and even has to attack the inscription of poetry, it can be said that the professional skills requirements of the weavers have always been full of inner volumes.
Paper ties were first produced as paper ming vessels in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, and reached their peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties – in other words, paper ties have been rolled in for more than two thousand years.
The business scope of the tie-makers is also very extensive, there are joys and funerals, but the paper kites and lanterns continue to this day, but the colorful products such as dance equipment, stages, and façade decorations have slowly disappeared from people's daily lives.
However, from some intangible cultural heritage items, we can still see the inner scrolls of the former paper tie.
Dongguan's "thousand angle lamp", a lamp is as high as 5 meters, the diameter is 2.5 meters, there is no paper pattern circulating, it relies on the oral teaching of teachers and masters, is called "the first lamp in the ancient times".
Nanjing's Qinhuai lanterns not only use traditional paper tying techniques, but also integrate embroidery, knotting and other crafts, known as "Qinhuai lanterns in the world".
△ Left: thousand angle lamp, right: Qinhuai lantern color
Just like the paper lights, all places can be fought. Nowadays, the paper tied for funerals and sacrifices in the narrow sense of what people call it has also been popular in ancient times with its extremely brilliant appearance.
A group of photographs taken on the streets of Beijing in the Qing Dynasty once recorded the paper tied for the funerals of officials and nobles, which opened the eyes of the upper class monarchs - the original facial features of paper people were once vivid and different.
Under the hands of top paper craftsmen, paper people are not so dull, and can even show the ethereality of the gods.
At present, there are still many paper tying schools famous for traditional handicrafts in China, such as Fujian Wutang paper, Jiangxi copper drum paper, Shandong Caoxian paper, Hebei Qiu county paper, Xiangxi Phoenix paper and so on.
The phoenix paper ties in Xiangxi are not only of a wide variety, but also rarely very festive under the influence of Wuchu culture and the open-minded concept of life and death of the Xiangxi people. The animal skeleton of the well-known Phoenix Papier-mâché descendant Nie Beard once became a handicraft that the professors of the Academy of Fine Arts rushed to buy back to make teaching models.
△ Phoenix paper tie
Wutang, Putian, Fujian Province, has a century-old heritage of Huang's paper tie, and is good at exaggerated modeling performance. Combined with the local religious culture, the shape of mazu and Guanyin and other deities in Huang's paper is more vivid and vivid, with a strong Fujian-Taiwan folk style.
The traditional papier-mâché in Hong Kong and Taiwan is very delicate and gorgeous, and this "Seven Sisters Basin" hidden in the Hong Kong Museum of History looks like a boundary.
△ Source: Weibo @ A Cheng's Daydream
Paper ties have also developed new uses with old Hong Kong characteristics in Hong Kong, in addition to providing ideas for Hong Kong-style ghost films or as props, locals also use paper to tie male and female dolls to collect debts, and there are also companies that sell supernatural novels that use paper to tie dolls to attract the attention of customers at book fairs, which is very Hong Kong.
△ TVB's old drama bone restaurant was placed by the black-clad man to place paper people to collect debts
Papier-mâché has also become a classic element of many movies, and has played an important role in the Thai horror film "Matsuri Paperza" and the Taiwanese film "Classmate Meñas".
△ In the movie "Classmate Mynas", there is a view of Mt. Fuji outside the window of Bijie's paper house
Although the paper is a funerary product, but it is pinned on the living's thoughts of the dead and unfulfilled wishes, perhaps the next time you see the paper, you don't have to be so afraid, after all, it is the crystallization of the national craft that has been rolled for a thousand years.
ZHANG Ruichao. Shaanxi Guanzhong Paper Zha Zhi Chen Ji Sanduo Hall Sacrifice Funeral Paper Tie Art[J].Decoration, 2015:96-98.
Yu Fang. Artistic characteristics and value of Huang's paper tie in Wutang, Putian[J].Art and Design (Theory), 2019:115-117.
Chen Zhong. A Study on the Visual Elements of Xiangxi Phoenix Paper Tie Art[J].Popular Literature and Art, 2015:112.
Lu Xixing. Ancient Papier-mâché[J].Chinese Classics and Culture,2007(63):106-113.
Author | Hold the ink
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