An introduction to Uyghur folk paper-cutting

The Uyghurs were developed from most of the Huijuan and Xinjiang aborigines who migrated west from the Mongolian Plateau in the 9th century. The farming economy developed earlier and the folk paper-cutting art developed rapidly. Several wavy thick line patterns commonly used by the Uyghurs are deformations of the water gods and tree gods worshiped by shamanism; the box-shaped pattern is borrowed from Buddhist and Christian sacred boxes and later became a form of shape with Islamic religious colors and characteristics. Islamic rules strictly prohibit the worship of idols. Therefore, it is difficult to see specific animals and portraits in folk paper-cutting. Instead, concealed and deformed modeling techniques are used to express them. Therefore, the art of decorative paper-cutting has been unprecedentedly developed.