| It is said that the paper-cutting of Yu County has a history of nearly two hundred years. It is an artistic form that is created by the folk artists of Yu County and it borrows from and absorbs the traditional folk arts such as board watermark paper-cutting for window decoration of Hebei Wuqiang, the woodcut of Yangliuqing of Tianjin City and the domestic paper-cutting and embroidery. After years of development, it gradually becomes an artistic style which is full of regional features. For centuries, by means of passing from fathers to sons and from teachers to apprentices, the folk artists not only pass down the special workmanship of Yu County's paper-cutting, but also inherit and carry on the special cultural spirit and aesthetic ideal of the Chinese nation. The paper-cutting of Yu County is an old life technique that is deeply embedded in the folks and a living cultural heritage. It is a representation of the intelligence of generations of folk artists of Yu County. It is also the valuable resource and wealth which embodies the diversity of the Chinese culture.The paper-cutting of Yu County is a fortune created by many native folk artists and it exhibits the creative power of the folk artists. After centuries of succession and development, Yu County's paper-cutting gradually forms the artistic features of abundantly shaped, brilliantly colored and exquisitely manufactured. However, along with the economic globalization and the rapid development of modern machinery industry, the survival and development of Yu County's paper-cutting for window decoration is severely challenged and is facing a crisis of disappearing. Th early ubiquitous window grilles of Yu County gradually become far away from the people's sight, and are replaced by modern handicraft paper-cutting. In essence, the production techniques of Yu County's paper-cutting belong to the farming civilization. However, we are now in the era of global industrialization, the situation of globalization and modernization makes the agricultural civilization tend to collapse. Yu County's paper-cutting which is closely related to the farming life gradually becomes out of line with the modern life. What it is rooted in is the folk customs of the local working people. With the collapse of farming civilization and the disappearance of folk customs, Yu County's window grilles gradually become the collection and cultural heritage associated with historical memory.The survival, protection, succession and development crisis and difficulties confronted by the traditional manufacturing of handmade paper cutting techniques of Yu County's paper-cutting make it an urgent responsibility and duty for us to collect, collate the data about it and study the craft, heritage, development of it. We need to enhance people's protection awareness of the intangible cultural heritage—Yu County's paper-cutting and make the protection of Yu County's paper-cutting step in a scientific, standardized, rationalized, and even lawful track. It is necessary for us to attach importance to and strengthen the studies on the basic theory of cultural heritage of Yu County's paper-cutting, and strengthen our reflection and summary on various theories and practice that are applicable to the protection work on the non-material cultural heritage—Yu County's paper-cutting. In this paper, on one hand, we make a profound analysis about the non-material cultural aspect of the inheritor, the ecological environment and manufacturing techniques; on the other hand, in view of the current situation of Yu County's paper-cutting, we analyze problems of its protection and development in order to demonstrate the problems and challenges existed in the development of Yu County's paper-cutting and illustrate our point of view that as Chinese folk paper-cutting is an integral part of traditional culture, we want to arouse the whole nation's feeling of identity and pride on traditional Chinese culture so as to make the whole society show concern and interest in folk arts and at the same time not let the handicrafts of the traditional folk paper-cutting live only in our memory...
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