Paper Cutting In Northern Shaanxi Province

Where there is paper-cut, there is good luck and blessing. Traditional northern Shaanxi folk paper-cut always imparts people’s perception of beings and consciousness of life. However, social cultural and ecological environment gets it out of track. Over the past two decades, from the original prosperity to the beginning of change in the Revolutionary War, creative paper-cut art has played a main role in traditional northern Shaanxi paper-cut. Most people are gradually disregarding what it really is, even knowing little about its unique value and artistic features. Therefore, research into the tradition of local civilization, original connotation and characteristics has an important cultural significance and historical value.The features such as the formation of the background, folklore resources, stylized artistic features and cultural skills are the keys to interpret the northern Shaanxi folk paper-cut in cultural heritage and local art characteristics. Under the influence of primitive culture, original philosophy, geography, religion and other multi-cultures, a unified emotional value orientation and unique artistic language features have been formed. Most creators have suffering experience which they see as their inspiration and impetus. The paper-cut reflects two themes---- survival and reproduction, and represents the pursuit of custom and cultural value. From born to die, people are accompanied by paper-cut around all aspects of their life. The northern Shaanxi folk art paper-cut points out ordinary citizens’ emotional memorization and cultural identity on the basis of image and patterns, colour and symbolization, which is a distinct emotional express under agricultural civilization. In the deep ancient cultural heritage, northern Shaanxi folk paper-cut inherits uncomplicated style of Qin and Han describing vivid details about women’s both inheritance and interpretation relevant to natural groups and life custom. It is excellent and simple in skills, rough and uncomplicated, meticulous and elegant in styles along with diversity of figurativeness and abstraction. A unity of style is considered, full of an artistic spirit of freedom and sincerity.Currently, the original ecology of northern Shaanxi folk paper-cut has been influenced by the new artistic ideas, the development of economy and technology. It will possibly be substituted by realistic paintings type, because of people’s ignorance and hesitation to the values of traditional culture. Therefore, it is crucial and urgent to explore its primitive, and reveal its ancient but classic art. I believe this will have great significance for inheritance and the innovation.