Paper-cut is a traditional folk decoration art, especially popular in Foshan area. The long history of the paper-cut can be traced back Song Dynasty, while its most prosperous time is in the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Now the paper-cut products are very popular in Guangdong province and southwest of China, as well as in Asian countries.
Colorful Paper-cut Art
The traditional Foshan paper-cut features the themes of festival and luck, exorcising and blessing, children and longevity, etc. A unique local style is shaped with the brilliant copper foils adopted in the paper-cut.
According to its raw materials and making methods, the Foshan paper-cuts are divided into copper lining, paper lining, copper writing, silver writing, woodcut, copper chiseling, and solid color, etc. The local copper foil and silver foil are used with cutting, carving and chiseling techniques, lined with various color paper and printed with various patterns to create the paper-cuts with southern styles. Foshan paper-cuts have both delicate and bold expression means, and different materials are selected according to different demands.
Interesting local customs
In ancient times, the paper-cuts were mainly used for festival gifts decoration, embroidery carving patterns, product trademarks and so on. With develoment of the society, Foshan paper-cuts have created a path of renovation on the traditional arts with strict picture composition, strong decorating ability, elegance and splendidness to reflect the modern living topics. Foshan paper-cut is typical in China paper-cut arts.
Foshan paper-cut has an important position in the local customs. In festivals, wedding, funeral, birthday celebration, sacrifice, intercommunication and daily articles and children toys, the paper-cuts are used for decoration. For example, in Spring Festival, the door head of each family is pasted with a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription of Five Fortunes On Door , below which are pasted five copper lining characters of Fortune in the shape of coin. The Gold Flowers are sacrificed to Heavenly God, ancestors, door-keeping god, land god, stove god and well god.
On the the seventh evening of the seventh month on Chinese lunar calendar each year, women will use the paper-cuts to decorate the fruit baskets, incense burner tables, the bowels for carrying the articles for sacrifice. The girls will use the paper-cuts to decorate the white gourd lanterns. Usually the paper-cuts used on the Qiqiao Festival are one of the items for the girls to contest their handcraft. The fireworks are decorated with paper-cuts, and the tobacco bags, tea baskets (for carrying teapot), rice jars and glass boxes are mostly decorated with paper-cut.