Published in Kerry Properties’ The Dress Circle May 2006
Once upon a time all young girls in China dreamed of mastering the art of paper-cutting because proficiency in the craft was used as a criterion in the selection of brides.
Paper-cuts are painstakingly produced by hand and often employed as decor to lend a festive air to households. It was not uncommon in the old days to see women and girls busy crafting pieces to hang on doors and windows, walls and ceilings.
Using only a pair of scissors or a cutting knife, expert hands and eyes can turn a sheet of paper into a beautifully intricate and complicated piece of artwork to be admired and treasured for a long time.
Paper-cut art is mainly two-dimensional, sitting on a flat plane devoid of shadows and the perspective of space, but in the hands of a master they can take on stunning proportions and evoke profound feelings of awe and wonder in the observer.
Paper-cutting has its origins in China, a fact that is not at all surprising since paper itself was invented in China in the 1st century A.D. during the Han Dynasty. Pieces of paper-cut art, excavated in the Xinjiang province in Western China, have been traced back one thousand years.
As paper was valuable in those early days, paper-cutting first gained popularity amongst the court ladies of the royal palaces and houses of nobility who adopted it as a favourite hobby to pass their time.
Between the 7th to 13th centuries, paper-cuts moved out of aristocratic circles and assumed an important role in the decoration and beautification of folk festivals and celebrations. In fact, professional paper-cut craftsmen started to appear as early as the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).
It was during the time of adventurers like Marco Polo in the 14th century that the art of paper-cutting spread its wings to the Middle East and Europe.
Since the 15th century, paper-cutting has developed into being an integral part of the lives of ordinary folk, many making paper-cuts for home décor and also as gifts for family, friends and neighbours.
There were also those who learnt the skill as a means of making a daily living. The art is one that is easy to learn but difficult to master with perfection.
All apprentices are challenged with four basic lines in which they strive to attain mastery: a circle like a moon, a straight line like a stem of wheat, a square like a brick and a jaggedly line like a beard.
People have, for centuries, attempted to find hope and comfort from the travails of life in the ability to express themselves through paper-cuts. The art cultivates in its practitioners patience and concentration and helps eliminate boredom.
Many day-to-day activities are used as subject matter. Major topics may include pastoral scenes like working in fields, herding sheep and cattle. Plants, fruits, livestock, fish, worms and birds in their natural environments were often depicted by farmers.
Auspicious events, legends and theatrical characters too are favourite themes. Topics like children, lotus and gourds were employed to symbolise prolific families with many generations that comprise a large number of children and grand-children.
The art of paper-cutting has exerted its influence on related crafts like decorative patterns, leather silhouette, printed cloth, embroidery and paintings.
Increasingly, paper-cut artists today are pushing the boundaries they are presented with and in so doing are pushing the art to new frontiers. Modern topics and abstract forms are gaining popularity.
Artists strive constantly to develop new cutting techniques involving both scissors and cutting knives and also experiment with colour. The final appearance of a piece is sometimes rendered with symmetrical folding, pasting multiple layers of colour and engraving.
Paper-cutting has become something of an industry nowadays – it is not uncommon for an artist to focus solely on the design of the piece, leaving the cutting to a band of workers.
Staffers may place a template on top of perhaps 20 sheets of paper and execute the cutting for all the sheets simultaneously in what is an emulation of mass production.
Paper-cutting has come out of its traditional folk art shell and has moved towards center-stage to assume its well-deserved place as a respected art form.