Tracing Back: The Coexistence of Mongolian and Han People nourished by the Hongshan Cultural Heritage
As a core school of Northeast Paper-Cutting, Jianping Paper-Cutting takes root in Jianping, western Liaoning, the birthplace of Hongshan Culture, carrying the imprint of 5,000 years of civilization accumulation and multi-ethnic integration. From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, nomadic peoples such as Shanyong, Mongolian and Khitan settled here. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, Paper-Cutting techniques brought by Han people from inside the pass collided and integrated with minority cultures, gradually forming a unique artistic style and becoming a vivid witness to the symbiosis of Mongolian and Han cultures.
Appreciating the Charm: The artistic style that is bold yet elegant
Jianping Paper-Cutting combines boldness, romance, delicacy and elegance, forming distinct artistic characteristics. With white as the keynote, it skillfully uses negative cutting and positive cutting techniques, matched with sawtooth patterns and crescent patterns. The combination of lines and surfaces is strongly contrasting, retaining the boldness of nomadic peoples and containing the delicacy of agricultural culture. Its composition is not restricted by space, and it is good at showing stories and legends in two-and-a-half or four-dimensional space. The shapes are exaggerated but not unrealistic. Animal Paper-Cuttings are vivid and expressive, and folk Paper-Cuttings are full of fireworks, showing the charm of "boldness hiding elegance and simplicity containing delicacy".
Lanwu: An all-encompassing imprint of life
Jianping Paper-Cutting is deeply integrated into people's lives, with a wide variety and extensive themes. According to its uses, it can be divided into festival decorations, weddings and funerals, embroidery patterns, etc. Window flowers and door stickers convey festive blessings, happy characters and birthday flowers carry good expectations, shoe patterns and pillow tops fit daily needs, and even in witchcraft Paper-Cuttings, artists will burn eyes with incense to endow the works with "soul". From historical stories to myths and legends, from grains and livestock to folk customs, each Paper-Cutting is a vivid portrayal of Jianping people's life attitude and cultural memory.
Chuanxin: Perseverance and Rebirth in the Predicament of Intangible Cultural Heritage
In 2008, Jianping Paper-Cutting was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage, and in 2009, it was included in the list of representative works of human intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. Today, old artists adhere to their ingenuity and pass on their skills from generation to generation, while young inheritors are trying to combine Paper-Cutting with cultural and creative products and short videos to adapt the ancient skills to modern life. Although it is currently facing the dilemma of insufficient willingness of the younger generation to inherit, this fingertip skill is still glowing with new life in persistence and has become a cultural card of Jianping.
Emotion: A cultural Invitation with every piece of paper and every cut
Jianping Paper-Cutting is never a cold work of art, but a cultural carrier engraved with the context of Mongolian-Han integration and carrying people's expectations. It hides the wind and smoke of Saibei, carries thousands of years of stories, and passes on the charm of traditional culture from generation to generation between the opening and closing of scissors. May we all stop, understand the charm of Jianping Paper-Cutting, guard this intangible cultural heritage treasure, and let the ingenuity of fingertips be passed down forever in time.
