The history of Helinger paper-cutting

"Helinger County is located in the central part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The county is close to the ancient Great Wall in the southeast, connected to Tumochuan in the northwest, and 50 kilometers away from Hohhot, the capital of the autonomous region, in the north. Because it is located at the transitional junction between northern Shanxi and Monan The special geographical location of the area has been influenced by multiculturalism since ancient times. Various ethnic groups have lived together. The peoples language, clothing, food, residence, etc. all have the characteristics of a certain degree of cultural integration between the Han and northern ethnic groups. Helinger paper-cutting was born in In this context of the blending of various cultural characteristics.

HelingelPaper-cutting has a long history of development. The northern nomads who have lived here for generations created the art of paper-cutting here. In the history of Horinger, many ethnic groups lived and multiplied on this land. It was one of the important areas where the northern nomadic peoples and the farming peoples of the Central Plains met and merged. There were Tufang, Guifang, Yifan, Loufan, Linhu, and Xiongnu successively. , Turks, Xianbei, Wuhuan, Khitan, Jurchen, Mongolia, Manchu and other northern ethnic groups stationed herders; later, there was the famous "Going to the West Exit" in the Qing Dynasty - the Qing Dynasty sent troops to the northwest, opened a post station in Helinger, and vigorously developed the west , farmers from Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places came here to clear up wasteland and settled here. The farming culture and the grassland culture were once again integrated. These provided fertile soil for the creation of Helingers paper-cutting; and then gradually formed the unique artistic form of Helingels paper-cutting. Currently, there are 13 towns and 40,000 farmers in Horinger County. Horinger County, which has a population of just over 180,000, has more than 5,000 amateur paper-cutters. The oldest is nearly a hundred years old, and the youngest is only seven or eight years old.

In 1998, the Helinger Paper-cutting Association, the first banner-county paper-cutting association in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, was established, which was a milestone in the history of Horinger paper-cutting. Under the leadership of President Duan Jianjun, more than 6,000 pieces of precious folk paper-cut art were rescued and collected. In recent years, with the countrys emphasis on and strong support for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, Helinger paper-cutting has also entered a new stage of development. From 2003 to 2010, Horinger County successively obtained“ "Hometown of Chinese Folk Paper-cutting Art", "Hometown of International Paper-cutting Art", "National Outstanding Intangible Cultural Heritage Project", "National Intangible Cultural Heritage Expansion Project List" and other honors, and has held the second international Large-scale activities such as the Paper-cutting Art Festival. Horingers Paper-cutting has received full attention across the country and even the world. Awards and honors are full recognition of its cultural characteristics and create opportunities for its future development. A good opportunity.