Exaggerated shape changes in Chinese folk paper-cutting
In the Chinese folk paper-cut figures, the "head" of the person is relatively large. This is everyones consensus. This phenomenon is not only found in northern paper-cutting, but also in southern paper-cutting, and also in folk paper-cutting of ethnic minorities; it can be found in human figures and animal figures. This shows that this phenomenon is not an accidental personality expression of a certain region or a certain person. What is the reason why folk paper-cutting in these different regions has this common phenomenon? This phenomenon is related to human intuition. Some people in the West believe that "Art is intuition." Let us first take a look at the phenomenon in the intuition of young children.
When young children draw a person, they often draw a circle first, with eyes and mouth inside. Draw two egg-shaped semicircles on both sides of the circle for ears. Draw an upward straight line above the circle to represent hair. The human head is now complete. Then draw two diagonal lines under the head to represent the arms, and then draw two slightly longer straight lines to represent the legs. This is a line drawing artistic expression of people that is commonly seen in paintings by young children. This kind of performance in childrens paintings actually does not fully reflect the impact of objective things on their vision. The lack of reflection does not mean that children have no understanding or ability limitations. The fact that they use lines to represent arms and legs shows that they also have the ability to express the body. Perception is the human brains direct response to the overall objective thing, including the sum of various characteristics on the surface of things and their connections. The movement between things directly affects perception. Children are most sensitive to moving things. People often hang small swinging toys on the babys cradle to promote the development of childrens understanding. Childrens sensitive response to movement makes this kind of "moving" stimulation leave a deep impression on their intuition. The rotation of limbs and heads, and the movements of face, mouth, and eyes in joy, anger, sorrow, and joy make children feel deeply. They play a vital role in childrens consciousness. Perceptually forming the overall characteristics of a person.
Children communicate through facial contact with those around them. In their understanding, the satisfaction of pleasure needs comes from the face. Young minds are fully dependent on emotional experience, and the "head" becomes the object of their greatest attention. The description of this understanding in feudal society is: "There is gold and jade in the book",People therefore believe that "head" contains infinite wisdom and power. Folks refer to the leaders of a group as "leaders", "leaders", and "toutou", and the top figures in certain behaviors as "top figures". Even when letting others "go first" in daily life, it is also said: "Go ahead". It is said that engaging in dangerous activities related to life is "doing it with the head in hand". All this shows the importance of the "head". "Being very clever" is a common understanding among the people. A big head is also a symbol of longevity. Hands are the most active and labor-intensive part of the human body, and the expression "hands" is indispensable. The "big head" shape also exists in other forms of Chinese folk art, such as traditional woodblock New Year pictures, stone carvings, dough sculptures, etc. Folk stone carving artists have a motto of "one pound of lions and nine pounds of heads". The themes that people attach great importance to are all represented by "big", such as "big ears are blessed", "big mouth can eat from all directions" and so on.
Childrens sensitivity to "movement" is an instinctive phenomenon. Although humans are advanced animals, as "animals", humans still have habits common to animals in their behaviors. Animals pay the most attention to moving objects. When we observe the behavior of cats and dogs, we can find that they can detect "movement" from weak movement and pounce on moving objects, forming a phenomenon of spinning in circles. Folks call it "cat tail adjustment". There is also a folk saying: "Dogs are afraid of touching the ground." Dogs are very sensitive to the movements of human hands. If you touch the ground, the dog will think that it is about to be attacked and will run away or fight back. The tiger on Jingyanggang first pounced on Wu Songs swinging whistle stick. Because the whistle stick moved so widely and intensely, the tiger had no cognitive ability and could not realize that the whistle stick movement was caused by Wu Song, so he did not pounce on Wu Song. The characters drawn by young children have no bodies, only legs and arms. This is also because the body without arms and legs moves more and has greater momentum. The complete collection of paper-cut patterns reflects human understanding developed from childhood thinking. It is the original emotional understanding tradition of human beings. This tradition is both determined by human nature and a reflection of human nature. It follows the tradition of Chinese folk customs. Cultural inheritance and development.
