Asia Expats Forum

cloris Spark · Plebian Joined: 28 Jan 2008 Posts: 70 Location:

Paper-Cutting

One of China's most popular folk arts is paper cutting. Paper-cutting is a very distinctive visual art of Chinese handicrafts. It originated from the 6th century when women used to paste golden and silver foil cuttings onto their hair at the temples, and men used them in sacred rituals. Later, they were used during festivals to decorate gates and windows. After hundreds of years' development, now they have become a very popular means of decoration among country folk, especially women.

People find hope and comfort in expressing wishes with paper cuttings. For example: for a wedding ceremony, red paper cuttings are a traditional and required decoration on the tea set, the dressing table glass, and on other furniture. A big red paper character 'Xi' (happiness) is a traditional must on the newlywed's door.

Enjoy the happiness of paper-cutting class and made paper-cutting with best wishes by yourself.
Here, you can learn the basic technique about paper-cutting, and how to make it. You will experience one of Chinese most popular folk arts and make friends with other people!

wavetravel · Joined: 14 May 2008 Posts: 15 Location:

This is fascinating. It kinda sounds like Japanese Origami. How difficult could paper-cutting gets? It's like pre-school, right?