Yu County paper-cut pattern
Most of the makers and buyers of Yuxian paper-cuts are farmers, so the patterns and content mostly reflect farmers' lives, such as farming, weaving, picking mulberry, herding cattle, herding sheep, feeding pigs, raising chickens, etc. In addition, it reflects the symbol of auspiciousness and praises blessings. Farmers design beautiful natural scenery, decorative flowers, birds, animals and plants into auspicious patterns. Then there are some heroic figures in myths and legends that reflect the farmers' love, as well as various roles in dramas.
It can be seen that the themes of traditional patterns in Yu County paper-cut patterns include all aspects of farmers' life, from production labor to cultural activities. According to field research in Yuxian County and surrounding rural areas, it was found that today, the patterns of window grilles still reflect the themes of rural life, and most of them follow Yuxian themes such as "Fu Lu Shou Xi Cai", flowers and animals, opera characters, etc. A small part of the traditional paper-cut patterns have been slightly adjusted based on current peoples preferences. For example, one of the window flower stalls in Nuanquan Town’s big market still has cranes, magpies and other old styles passed down from the early years, which are rare now. The modern handicraft paper-cut patterns are more suitable for decorating the modern urban living environment. There are two main types: one is traditional patterns based on flowers, facial makeup, opera figures, and twelve zodiac animals. This traditional pattern is based on the prototype of Yu County paper-cut traditional pattern and is innovatively designed to meet the current public aesthetic needs. Paper-cutting, this kind of paper-cutting works are hardcovered into volumes and become exquisite handicrafts, tourist souvenirs, etc. The other is modern patterns: there are foreign landscape figures, abstractly transformed flowers and animals, fifty-six ethnic groups with distinctive national characteristics, Buddha statues rich in religious color, my countrys most influential great men, famous mountains and rivers, Olympic and other themed graphics that keep up with the trends of the times.
These modern patterns are made into single-color paper-cuts, and then framed in large scrolls, frames, etc., to become large-scale gifts and decorations. It can be seen that the pattern of the window grilles is an inheritance of the traditional patterns of Yuxian paper-cutting, while the traditional patterns in the paper-cutting patterns of modern handicrafts are the development of the traditional patterns of Yuxian paper-cutting.
