Cutting Makes Everything Simple

Chinese paper-cutting is a kind of folk art with the help of scissors or knives. It was listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2009. The development of Chinese paper-cutting art presents an epitome of intangible cultural heritage protection. This issue of "Creativity 2030" salon, with the theme of "reinvigoration of intangible cultural heritage - the wonderful use of paper cutting", invites Zhao Xu to tell her story with paper-cutting and share the beauty of paper-cutting art.

Zhao Xu, Manchu Nationality, inheritor of paper-cutting, an intangible cultural heritage

A childhood immersed in paper-cutting

Zhao Xu's first meeting with paper-cutting dates back to her childhood. Born in a Manchu Family, she has been doing Manchu handicrafts with her mother, grandma and grand-grandma since childhood. At that time, she took the scissors bigger than her hand and used it as the key to explore the new world. When she was four, she tore the paper from her father's notebook and cut it into many small animals. Instead of dampening her curiosity and creativity, her mother even keeps these little paper cuts until today. As a child, she didn't know what the scissors or the colored papers really mean. At that time, there was only the time of flirting with handwork and the pure and great passion for paper-cutting. However, she felt that paper-cutting has subtly become an indispensable part of her life over time.

paper-cutting work:  The Daughter of the Sea

A comprehensive sense of innovation

Zhao Xu's learning about paper-cutting in real term was after she went to university. By chance, she met a professor who studied the art of paper-cutting. She learned more about paper-cutting as his apprentice. From then on, she devoted to studying paper-cutting painstakingly. Later on, she studied art and design. In addition to paper-cutting, she integrated the essence ofpaper-cutting into clothing, painting, design and cultural creation as well as other kinds of arts in the hope of letting more people know and fall in love with paper-cutting, an art bearing profound Chinese culture, through various forms.

Ingenious combination of paper-cutting and fashion design

Now, people's pursuit of beauty has become increasingly demanding with their living standards greatly improved, therefore, original handicrafts has drawn much more attention than ever before. She hopes that more and more people will start to learn paper-cutting to make our life more beautiful.

Enjoying the simplest

As one of the traditional Chinese culture, paper-cutting presents a popular folk hollow art which is deemed as a valuable intangible cultural heritage bearing a long history and profound cultural deposits. Since ancient times, paper-cutting has been around people. Paper-cutting can be seen on many occasions such as festivals, weddings and funerals. Especially in the Spring Festival, red paper-cutting is a good way to seek good luck. Zhao Xu mentioned that paper-cutting is an inclusive art, turning the intangible into the tangible, the impossible into the possible. The creator can even start from scratch without any art foundation. However, only if the creators follow the heart, as far as possible to exert their imagination, can the work be unique.

The essence of China's paper-cutting is a fantastic artistic experience-a combination of subtracting the redundant and perfecting the essence. Paper-cutting is a self-cultivation process which can sober your mind. Learning the subtraction art of paper-cutting can make us understand the wisdom and happiness of life, and taste the simplest.