Paper-cut artists put people as the center when creating paper-cut works
Human beings are the souls of all things. This is the preeminence of human beings over objects. However, acknowledging the superior status of human beings does not mean recognizing that human beings are subjects and objects are objects or objects to be known and conquered. The concept of people-oriented and the idea of ??"harmony between man and nature" are complementary to each other. In the creative concept of folk paper-cutting artists, "taking human beings as the center of the universe" is a beautiful wish placed in their works. This desire is left over from ancient times, remains in their subconscious, and is reflected in their way of thinking. Paper-cutting artists pay great attention to their own feelings in their creations. They don't care whether a certain shape is logical or whether it is true and accurate, as long as it can reflect peoples understanding and hopes.
The popular patterns of folk paper-cutting have gone through several stages in which human subject consciousness has been gradually strengthened. From the all-animal totem worship resulting from the "animistic view of all things" in primitive society, such as "fish", "tiger" and other paper-cut patterns, to the later half-human and half-animal combination paper-cuts, such as "Mermaid Doll" and "Jade Rabbit Longevity Peach Doll" etc., human beings' understanding of themselves is constantly increasing, and the human image has gradually become the main image in paper-cut creation. The "Doll with a Bun" pattern that is widely circulated in northern Shaanxi represents the emergence of the "fully personified god" style. In the composition of "Doll with a Bun", the image of the doll (human) is mainly centered in the front, with an exaggerated head shape, facial expressions, arms spread, legs spread, and a double bun (chicken) on the head. Among them, the distinctive symbolic feature is the symmetrical "human" shape. The image of the "doll holding a bun" and its variations have become an important part of local folk customs, which shows that human beings have made new developments in self-understanding and have developed the concept of "the sky is big, the earth is big, people are big, and there are people in the domain." The concept of "four majors, and people occupy one of them." can be said to be the initial embodiment of the "people-oriented" concept.
