Mar 31, 2011

Chinese paper cutting

After a of series articles about chinese artist, chinese new year will share some classical and traditional things about chinese culture. You can refer to more articles on"Chinese paper cutting

Chinese paper cutting

Chinese paper cutting
Chinese Paper Cutting or Jianzhi (Chinese: 剪纸, jiǎn zhǐ) is the first type of papercutting design, since paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China. The art form later spread to other parts of the world with different regions adopting their own cultural styles. Because the cut outs are also used to decorate doors and windows, they are sometimes referred to "chuāng huā" (窗花), meaning Window Flower.
Most of the people with access to paper for an entertainment cause such as art were usually nobles in royal palaces[1]. The Song Dynasty scholar Chou Mi mentioned several paper cutters who cut paper with scissors into a great variety of designs and characters in different styles, and a young man who could even cut characters and flowers inside his sleeve[2]. The oldest surviving paper cut out is a symmetrical circle from the 6th century found in Xinjiang, China.

Chinese paper cutting

Chinese paper cutting rabbit

Chinese paper cutting dragon