BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- At the home of Xiang Yuzhen, a paper-cutting artist in Linshu county, Linyi city in east China's Shandong Province, there are plenty paper-cutting works featuring ingenious designs, beautiful shapes and elegant styles, such as charming peony fairies, peacocks fanning out their tails, and lifelike dragons and magpies.
Paper-cutting is a traditional Chinese folk art of cutting red paper into patterns with scissors or carving knives. The works created are used as decorations, which are present throughout China as an integral part of folkways.
In 2009, paper-cutting with a history of thousands of years in China was inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Xiang recalled that her love for paper-cutting began in her early career years when she needed to decorate classrooms as a kindergarten teacher. For more than 40 years since then, the artist has kept cutting her works, with designs covering folk festivals, historical stories, literary allusions, myths and legends, opera characters and Chinese zodiac animals, which are infused with her passion for life and desire for happiness.
To promote the intangible cultural heritage of paper-cutting, Xiang has been launching free training courses in campuses and communities. She has also engaged in free lessons rolled out in partnership with the local museum to pass down paper-cutting know-how and skills to enthusiasts of the art. (Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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