As a local folk art form in China, paper-cuts display not only that the folks are intelligent and deft but also that their inner world is as colorful and innocent as the peach blossom.
Paper-cut is a seasonal art form. On holidays, festivals, or happy occasions, paper-cuts will be found all over the rural area in an "overwhelming scale". Every household in every village shall decorate their lintels, edges of beds (kang), ceilings, closets, barns, sacrifices, dead stock and even stalls with paper-cuts so that the whole house and the whole village look prosperous and beautiful.
Zhongyang Paper-Cut, Shanxi Province
Zhongyang Paper-cut refers to the local art form produced in Nanchuan River Basin inside Zhongyang County, Liujiaping Town and other remote mountainous areas in Shanxi Province. The paper-cuts, whose main themes are based on local customs and beliefs, seasonal changes, life experience, rituals, and mythologies, range from decorative patterns such as fish, snakes, frogs and rabbits, folk custom paper-cuts in accordance with seasonal changes, life experience and rituals, to those works based on folk mythologies.
Ansai Paper-cut, Shaanxi Province
Ansai Paper-cut is a folk art form popular in Ansai County, Shaanxi Province. On every happy occasion, women in Ansai will make paper-cuts and decorate the windows with them. Their paper-cuts feature various forms, simple and concise styles, rough and clear lines, and simple connotations; they are meant to embody the best wishes for safety and fortune.
Gaomi Paper-cut, Shandong Province
The unique style of Gaomi Paper-cut was formed in the Hongwu Era of the Ming Dynasty. The works are based on a wide range of themes, such as legends, mythologies, operas, stories, historical figures, flowers, birds, grass and worms. The forms include those for the decoration of windows, walls, ceilings, lamps, doors, weddings, clothes, funerals, etc.
Changbaishan Manchu Paper-cut, Jilin Province
Changbaishan Manchu Paper-cut, long present in the Changbaishan area, is located in Tonghua, Baishan, Jilin, Yanbian, Yitong and other regions. Manchu Paper-cut originates from the Shamanism believed in by the Manchu. Apart from paper, the Manchu also uses barks, leaves and corn cobs to make paper-cuts, forming a unique style.
Tahu Chiseled Paper-cut, Hunan Province
Tahu Village, Heshui Town, Luxi County in the west of Hunan Province is well known as the "Hometown of the Chiseled Paper-cut Art". Tahu chiseled paper-cuts, during the process of development, are being used not only in the clothing industry and the decoration industry but also on all the sacrificial rituals, weddings and funerals in the regions where the Miao Nationality concentrates.
Taian Paper-cut, Shandong Province
Taian Paper-cut is a local folk art form, whose themes cover popular objects among the folk such as figures, folk stories, grass and birds, worms and fish. On holidays, festivals and other happy occasions, especially on weddings, Taian paper-cuts of Chinese characters, small birds, lanterns, mandarin duck, as well as other birds, grass, and trees will be put on walls or windows as symbols of auspice and luck.
