Discover traditional Chinese folk paper-cutting

In the second half of the 19th century, Chinese society has been involved in the process of world economic integration since the Opium War. Facing the invasion of the West, Chinese society has undergone profound changes from top to bottom, from politics to economics and culture. Politically, reforms and reforms, economically, the Westernization Movement introduced advanced Western technology, and culturally, it began to "open its eyes to see the world". We pay attention to the West in various ways such as "Chinese learning as the body and Western learning as the application". In terms of academics, influenced by foreign countries, research work with a modern flavor was launched. In terms of folk culture, a group of intellectuals were influenced by Western ideological trends and launched a "downward-looking revolution." Intellectuals paid downward attention to the folk and paid attention to folklore events. When Chinese scholars introduced the concept of folklore from the West, folklore existed as a "legacy" concept in Western culture, and the introduced folklore systems and concepts were profoundly influenced by the theory of evolution.

Folk art including paper-cutting has been brought into the public eye during such a specific period, becoming the object of attention and the focus of folklorists. "In the sense of folklore, folklore is that part of daily life discovered and expressed by folklorists. They are selected because they fit a specific genre or cultural form." For folklore in the early 20th century, The discovery of paper-cutting from daily life is due to the theoretical hypothesis of its "remnants". For example, folklorist Zhong Jingwen believes that "peoples lives, whether material or spiritual, are mostly relatively 'traditional'. Certain systems, crafts, beliefs, and customs from ancient times or even prehistoric times, etc. "In the upper class society of civilized countries, traces of it have long since disappeared, but they can often be found in the lives of village people." "These are often cultural relics from prehistoric or ancient historical times in terms of content and form. ." He believes that "folk paintings are the shapes of peoples basic desires, the catharsis of peoples serious emotions, the expression of peoples aesthetic concepts, and the shape of their society.The reflection of images is a precious asset of their cultural traditions." The significance of these folk paintings is that "it allows us to understand the life of todays folk, and it also allows us to understand the life of past societies. It provides us with information to understand ancient and primitive artistic gestures, and also provides us with reference materials to create great art in the future. Its meaning and value are manifold. ”

Different from the social development situation in which Western folklore collects "relics", Chinese folklore faced a complete daily life in its early stages. Folklore phenomena including paper-cutting are an integral part of daily life. In an era when men farmed and women weaved, the natural economy dominated, paper-cutting was one of the necessary means for most people, especially women, to maintain their daily lives. It was one of the elements of life that was compatible with the natural environment and livelihood. In addition to cutting window grilles and decorating homes during the New Year, in an era when most ordinary residents' clothes were cut and made by hand, paper cutting as an embroidery base was once a skill that supported family livelihoods and decorated life. Paper-cutting is the most common thing for people living in it. Happy flowers and funeral flowers in life rituals are an important part of the ceremony. Paper-cutting is a concrete and subtle, real and tangible content of life for the people. It cultivates the peoples values ????and sense of community. The meaning of paper-cutting extracted through folklore was produced in a specific historical period. To regard folklore as lagging behind real life will unconsciously put the people in a position of transformation and liberation. For folklore researchers, paper-cutting has gradually become an object that needs to be liberated from the original relics, and the peasant class who use the most paper-cutting has become the object of transformation. In modern China, the status and location of the peasant class has always been double-wrapped by radical social thought and political atmosphere. One moment it may be seen as a representative of backwardness and ignorance, and the next moment it serves as the backbone of joint mobilization.

In China in the 1940s, revolution had become the main content of social life. The peasant class, as a united and mobilized social force in reality, had been liberated from its original oppressed position. At this time, the influence of farmers and folk culture Recognize and interpret the social structures established around the revolution. In his speech "Speech at the Yan'an Work Forum", Mao Zedong stated that "Chinas revolutionary writers and artists, as well as promising writers and artists, must go among the masses and must go among the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers wholeheartedly and unconditionally for a long time. …Only by representing the masses can we educate the masses, and only by being students of the masses can we be their teachers.” As a call for revolution, intellectuals spared no effort to unearth folk arts such as paper-cutting from the folk and turned them into mobilizable forces. Literary artists Jiang Feng, Zhang Ding, Gu Yuan, Li Qun and Ai Qing collected, sorted out, learned from and reformed folk paper-cutting. Printmakers Gu Yuan and Li Qun combined with the anti-Japanese situation at that time created "Reading Newspapers"", "Militia", ((Cooperative", "Weaving", "Literacy)) and other paper-cut works. It played an active role in the propaganda activities to consolidate the red regime and support the labor force at that time, marking the change of folk paper-cutting from daily use to revolutionary symbol. During the same period, intellectuals continued to collect folk paper-cutting and named it "paper-cutting art", which also triggered unprecedented research enthusiasm for paper-cutting art and exploration of its historical development. For example, Chen Shuliangs "Window Decorations: Folk Paper-cutting Art" (1947) is divided into four parts: characters, animals, feathers, fish, insects and flowers, with a total of 98 window delicacies. Based on the collection of accompanying patterns, the relationship and significance of paper-cutting and its creative group have become increasingly clear through the filtering and interpretation of intellectuals. As Ai Qing said: "Paper-cutting can be said to be a product of rural families and a work of art in places without printing conditions.