Objects protected by Yueqing carving and paper-cutting
The objects of productive protection tend to be traditional crafts with dual cultural and economic value, which cannot be metabolized by themselves and must rely on external forces, and have potential for marketization and industrialization. Yueqing fine-grained paper engraving itself is a handicraft, and we can protect its material form through collection. However, the core of the "creative behavior" as an intangible cultural heritage is intangible, and its skills and techniques only exist in On the artists who work on it.
However, the protection of artists cannot be stipulated concretely, because what artists carry is skills, intelligence, spirituality, and "creativity", which cannot be formed through simple recording and copying. The key to the inheritance and development of Yueqings fine-grained paper is whether this "creativity" accumulated over many years, including its integrity, purity and exquisiteness, can be continued. Therefore, what needs to be solved is the conditions or environment that stimulate this "creativity". The environment in which many original ecological folk paper-cuts depended on has changed, and their original functionality has been greatly weakened. This is the main reason why paper-cuts have largely and rapidly disappeared from peoples lives. However, paper-cut products entering the market can easily lower their standards and cultural value, become victims of the blind pursuit of profits, and lead to the path of skill variation and degradation.
Although Yueqing fine-grained paper engraving has been passed down by better old paper artists in recent years, few of the next generation artists are willing to spend a lot of energy and time to master the most high-end techniques. I am worried about whether the engraved paper can still retain its superb craftsmanship after a few years. In order to provide a more reasonable environment for the "creativity" of Yueqing fine-grained paper engraving, and to effectively and comprehensively protect every aspect from artists to skills, from organization to system, from procedures to styles, and every aspect of the entire process. First, we should ensure that the survival of Yueqing fine-grained paper has a more scientific and standardized basis, not only protecting its standardized, stereotyped, and classic skills and forms in the inheritance process, but also stimulating its new popularity through market means. Cultural value creates power.
