The history and development of Fuyang folk paper-cutting
The exact age of Fuyang paper-cutting cannot be verified, but the history of Fuyang paper-cutting can be traced back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The poem "Mulan Ci" (a Yuefu folk song in the Northern Dynasties) that praises the heroine Hua Mulan (a native of Qiaojun in ancient times, now a native of Bozhou, and Bozhou was originally part of Fuyang) contains the poem "When the window is trimming the temples, the mirror is yellow", "Hua Huang" "That is, paper-cutting on the head, which shows that the art of paper-cutting appeared in Fuyang as early as the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
In the Tang Dynasty, Bozhou in Fuyang region produced the famous "Bo silk". In the Tang Dynasty, silk was used as paper, and the custom of cutting silk flowers should have been spread here. This kind of cutting silk flowers and paper cutting have the same origin. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many paper-cutting artists in Fuyang who used scissors to cut "flowers" and made a living. They mainly provided embroidery patterns for women to make shoe flowers, hat flowers, pillow flowers, etc., and provided local people with daily life. Lots of decorative touches. For more than a thousand years, Fuyang people have been accustomed to using paper-cutting to decorate objects, decorate doors and windows, and beautify the environment during festivals and birthdays. However, due to the frequent flooding of the Huaihe River over the years, the people of Fuyang often left their hometowns, and the paper-cuttings could only be clamped in notebooks, so relatively few works have been preserved. Among the Fuyang paper-cuts that have been preserved to this day are the "Cowherd and Weaver Girl", "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", "Lanqiao Meeting", "Mudi" and "Sacrifice Pagoda" from the Qing Dynasty. Although these works are not large in length, they all have simple compositions, clear cuts, and vivid images. As the base of a girls embroidered shoes, the pattern on the skirt of a wedding dress, or the pattern on both ends of an old-fashioned square pillow.
After the founding of New China, Fuyang paper-cutting has been fully developed. Especially in the 1960s, the cultural departments of Anhui Province and Fuyang region sent special departments to collect and organize Fuyang paper-cut works, and edited and published the "Anhui Fuyang Paper-cut Collection". And cultivate a team of farmers’ paper-cut creations. Since 1976, the Fuyang Culture Department has conducted a census of paper-cutting authors in the entire region (including Bozhou and other cities and counties) to collect and organize their works. According to statistics, there were nearly a thousand folk paper-cutting authors in Fuyang at that time.. Fuyang paper-cut artists Chen Zhiren, Lu Fengmao, Wang Jiahe, Cheng Jianli, Jia Peixiu and the Dai sisters were all discovered in this census. Feng Jicai, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, mentioned in "Fuyang Paper-cutting Song" that "the hands are skillful and the mind is intelligent. The paper is cut and turned with the knife, and all things come into being in a moment." Since 1978, Fuyang paper-cutting has been held in Hefei, Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Paper-cutting exhibitions are held in Jinan, Shenzhen, Luoyang, Shenyang, Wuhan, Guiyang, Chengdu, Harbin, Urumqi and other places as well as in Japan and other countries. He has been introduced and published his paper-cut works by newspapers such as "Peoples Daily", "China Youth Daily", and "China Farmers News". In January 1980, the first paper-cut academic organization in the country, Fuyang Paper-cut Research Association, was established. In 1983, the Fuyang Folk Art Research Office was approved by the Anhui Provincial Department of Culture. Today, this department still plays an important organizational role in the development and inheritance of Fuyang paper-cutting. The department published 11 issues of the "Folk Art" magazine from 1982 to 1996 in the early years of its establishment, recording a large number of paper-cut works and activities in Fuyang at that time, and also published many articles by famous scholars and experts. It was a relatively influential folk art at that time. Publications have become a medium for communication with folk art from other regions. The cultural department in Fuyang has also published many atlases, such as "Anhui Fuyang Paper-cut Collection", "Fuyang Paper-cut Collection", "Fuyang Paper-cut Collection", etc. There are also Central News Film Studio, Shanghai Science and Education Film Studio, CCTV, Shanghai, Shandong, Anhui and other provincial and municipal TV stations to shoot Fuyang paper-cut feature films. After these special films and reports were broadcast, many experts, scholars, and paper-cutting artists across the country came to inspect Fuyang paper-cutting and began to study Fuyang paper-cutting art and its academic value. The National Paper-cutting Academic Research Conference was held twice in Fuyang in 1987 and 1996. In 1988, the paper-cut work "A Dream of Red Mansions" collaborated by Liu Jicheng and Wang Jiahe was used as a gift to the United Nations.
Jieshou City in Yangzhou was approved by the Ministry of Culture as the "Hometown of Chinese Folk Paper-cutting Art"; in 2002, the farmer paper-cutting artist Cheng Jianli was named the Chinese Paper-cutting Master by the China Paper-cutting Research Association; in 2006, Fuyang Paper-cutting was named one of the most outstanding artists in Anhui Province. Intangible cultural heritage; in 2008, Fuyang paper-cutting was included in a batch of lists of Chinas national intangible cultural heritage. In 2009, Yingzhou District of Fuyang City was approved by the Ministry of Culture as the “Hometown of Chinese Folk Paper-cutting Art”. There is one paper-cutting master in the region: Cheng Jianli (late), four provincial-level intangible cultural heritage inheritors: Zhu Kunying (late), Liu Jicheng, Cheng Xinghong, Wu Qingping, and nearly 50 paper-cutting artists. The Fuyang Paper-cut Research Association has 108 members. Fuyang paper-cutting has developed to a new stage.
In short, Fuyang’s unique geographical location, long history, diverse culture and profound humanistic thoughts have provided opportunities for the emergence and development of paper-cutting art in Fuyang area.Provided fertile soil. With the vigorous development of intangible cultural heritage across the country in recent years, Fuyangs Jieshou painted pottery, Miaohu Book Club, Yugu, Qingyin, Haizi Opera, Yingshang flower drum lanterns and Fuyang paper-cutting have all been included in Chinas intangible cultural heritage directory. It provides an excellent opportunity for the development of folk art in Fuyang area, including Fuyang paper-cutting.
