Protection measures for folk paper-cutting in Zhongyang, Luliang
As the carrier of paper-cut culture and a product of folk customs, Zhongyang paper-cut is also in the midst of todays cultural changes. As Western scholars have pointed out, "Cultural changes do not only occur in our culture. Throughout human history, as peoples needs change, traditional behaviors and attitudes are constantly being replaced or changed." A new concept or new behavior may originate within a society, or it may be borrowed from or imposed by another society. The new concept or new behavior may become a cultural concept or behavior and be widely accepted by people. acceptance."
Indeed, we can see the acceptance of many new concepts and behaviors in our daily lives today. Facing the impact of todays market economy, Zhongyang paper-cutting is diluting and abandoning its old cultural characteristics day by day, and constantly absorbing and gradually forming new cultural characteristics and cultural aspects. Therefore, an issue related to the protection of national and folk culture naturally arises. It attracted peoples attention. With the promulgation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the recognition of a number of intangible cultural heritage masterpieces in the world, governments at all levels in our country have also successively introduced a series of policies for the protection of intangible cultural heritage. As far as Zhongyang paper-cutting is concerned, Shanxi Province and Luliang region have introduced protection policies last year, and the county committee and county government have also formulated specific protection measures, which are very conducive to the protection of Zhongyang paper-cutting art. In 2007, the Zhongyang County Party Committee and County Government identified the inheritors of paper-cutting through a thorough investigation and made the decision to provide these inheritors with monthly living allowances. This gave these paper-cutting artists a basic living guarantee and allowed them to participate in various activities with ease. This paper-cutting activity has no worries, allowing them to continue to inherit the essence of folk customs and create a large number of excellent works that reflect modern life. In addition, the county party committee and county government also organized paper-cutting artists to establish a paper-cutting association, providing a platform for paper-cutting artists to communicate and learn about paper-cutting skills. These measures have greatly encouraged the creative confidence of paper-cutting artists. At the same time, starting from 2007, the government decided to hold a paper-cutting art event every two years, striving to build Zhongyang into the first paper-cutting county in China. The implementation of the above measures is very important for protecting and inheriting Zhongyang paper-cutting.Culture has a positive role and is feasible, but these are far from enough for the protection and inheritance of paper-cut culture. During the investigation, the author found that there are still some issues that need to be considered:
First, the issue of protection objects. The protection objects of paper-cut culture include the protection of paper-cut works, paper-cut objects and the cultural environment in which paper-cut art exists. At present, most of the policies and measures issued by the local government are aimed at paper-cutting artists, and almost do not involve the protection of paper-cutting works and the cultural environment in which paper-cutting exists. The author believes that the protection of the latter two items is also very necessary. Any folk custom item has its specific living environment, and only in a specific living environment can folk custom items reflect its specific functions. In the early days of paper-cut art, it mainly had practical functions, such as exorcising evil spirits, avoiding disasters, praying for a good harvest, etc. With the development of society, today the local function of paper-cut is mainly transformed into the main aesthetic function. Artists, who are the main body of paper-cut, also follow the development of society. Development has made adjustments to the styles and techniques of paper-cutting. Especially after the paper-cutting association and paper-cutting art processing company were established in the county, the main targets of paper-cutting artists changed from the original villagers to local tourists and businesses. In order to satisfy the needs of these customers Due to the demand, artists' paper-cut creations tend to have a single style and simple and rough shapes. In the authors interviews, most artists expressed concern about the state of the paper-cut living environment and believe that if this continues, the paper-cut culture that can truly embody the characteristics of Zhongyang will be It will lose its original characteristics and even end up becoming a commodity that simply adapts to the needs of the market economy. This is a question worth reflecting on. At present, Zhongyang paper-cutting has not yet formed its own characteristics, nor has it established its own brand. There is still relatively little exchange and discussion of skills between artists. These are problems that need to be solved urgently in the future. Otherwise, Zhongyang paper-cutting will have "re-application" The situation of "light protection" may even end in vain.
Second, the issue of protecting the subject. The subject of protection here has several levels of understanding. From the perspective of local government, folk paper-cutting belongs to the "vulnerable group" in many folk cultural development projects. Government officials often think in terms of specific indicators of economic benefits. Therefore, the governments protection often remains at the conceptual level, and it is difficult to have a big impact. Engagement and action. From an experts point of view, their protection is motivated by their instinctive love for folk culture and natural interest in research. They have contributed greatly to the publicity and call for the protection of folk culture, and have also made numerous achievements in research. However, after all, these experts appear as outsiders and tend to ignore and forget the real feelings of the local people and do not care about the real problems of the subjects of the investigation. Folklore scholar Dr. Zhou Xing once pointed out: "The value of national folk cultural and artistic heritage depends first on their significance to the lives of the people in the community where they are located. Of course, it also depends on their history, inheritance and significance to our nation and local people." , national and even human significance, rather than depending on their commercial development and utilization value,It cannot depend on the needs of “image projects” and “money-demanding projects” of governments at all levels. "In the authors investigation, it was found that most paper-cutting artists believe that their works have no interview value. When talking about the inheritance of paper-cutting skills and whether anyone is willing to learn paper-cutting, they seem to have no idea about the paper-cutting skills. Liu doesn't feel much regret, thinking that paper-cutting has no practical effect now and will disappear when it disappears. For most paper-cutting artists, paper-cutting is just a means of making a living when they are poor, and it is a helpless choice in hard times. It can be seen that for these paper-cutting artists, paper-cutting is not out of aesthetic needs, but more out of the pressure of real life. Therefore, the government and scholars should pay more attention to the living environment of the carrier of cultural matters, which is of course the fundamental subject of protection. Is the people
