Chinese folk paper-cutting and paper-cutting culture
Graphics are a language. Like words, it is first of all a way of conveying information discovered by human beings, and secondly it exists as an aesthetic object. When humans began to strike the first stone, civilization continued to advance with the work of their hands. When the primitive ancestors were still drilling wood to make fire, graphics had already appeared on the rock walls, becoming a medium for people to communicate, contact, and record their lives and sacrifices. Then gradually, through making stone tools, hunting, fishing, farming and other labor, Establish the formal beauty of original art such as hollowing out, black and white contrast, and line modeling.
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Folk art is the mainstream flowing from the source of primitive art!. A considerable part of Chinese traditional graphics comes from the torrent of folk art. As an integral part of traditional Chinese graphics, folk paper-cutting is the most common and active art form in my countrys folk life. It can be found in the vast land of China, from south to north and from east to west. Folk paper-cutting, an image-based art, is a product of ancient civilizations in the two river basins of the Yellow River and Yangtze River. The civilizations of the north and the south collided and blended in the two river basins. The folk paper-cutting factions in the south and north of my country are also mainly divided by these two river basins. As one of the traditional graphic forms, folk paper-cutting presents different semantics, composition methods and style characteristics due to different regional cultures. The similarities and differences in the graphic characteristics of paper-cutting between the north and the south can reflect from one side the similarities and differences in a nations history and culture, social customs, thoughts, emotions and aesthetic orientation.
After the successful bid for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Chinese graphic design has ushered in an era of advocating "design nationalization" and "localization". Various traditional graphics with strong national colors have almost become the first choice for all kinds of design creativity. Designers apply these graphic elements to various forms of graphic design, using new concepts and new expression techniques generated by the exchange, collision and fusion of traditional and modern culture to enhance the cultural and historical added value of the work. As one of the well-known traditional Chinese graphic elements, folk paper-cutting is naturally used frequently in design works. People are increasingly interested in traditional graphics, whether it is a re-examination of traditional Chinese art or based on traditional Graphic elements drive the “native” nature of the design"" is a good thing, but as Mr. Zhang Daoyi said, the superficial excitement "does not further consider its theoretical issues. There are very few theoretical studies that can take an overall view and are holistic and comprehensive. “As for studying history, studying foreign countries, and making vertical and horizontal comparisons, we are still in a blank state in many aspects. ”
The formation of graphic characteristics is not a mechanical division and combination, it must interact with the entire cultural system. The concept of traditional graphic symbols is not only based on the artistic point of view and follows the strict concept of "tradition" and "tradition", but has broad cultural significance and is reflected in the material clothing, food, housing, transportation and spiritual world, including thousands of Chinese people. In the civilization of the 19th century, any graphic symbols that have the form of text, patterns, architecture, crafts, food, utensils, etc. Among these graphic symbols, there are not only the characteristics of aesthetic taste, but also the unique language and inner meaning that represent traditional culture.
Regionality is the spatial characteristic of the formation and development of folk paper-cut patterns. China has a vast territory, and there are many types of paper-cutting. The styles of paper-cutting in southern and northern China can be summed up in four words - rough in the north and beautiful in the south. Graphics labeled as "rough" and "showy" are attached with information about history, geography, folk customs, culture and other factors. After a long period of inheritance and selection, this information has formed different graphic characteristics. Even within the same region, graphic elements conveying the same type of information vary from region to region.
