Guangzhou >> Paper Cutting

Attraction Typ: Entertainment, Shows and Concerts

Location: about 30 km from city

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Paper Cutting

Foshan is the original place of the Lingnan culture while Foshan paper cutting is the best artistic treasures which can represent Foshan folk culture.

Foshan paper cutting( Chinese: 剪纸; pinyin: jiǎnzhǐ) originated in Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasty with a long history. It owns the characteristics of elegance and delicacy or the performance method of grand and powerful.

In ancient time, paper cutting is mainly used in the decoration of festival gift, sacrifices decoration, embroidery and carving patterns and so on. With the development of the society, Foshan paper cutting has developed an innovation road for traditional arts with the characteristics of strict composition, strong decoration feature, delicacy and clearness, brilliance and magnificence, mostly reflecting modern life, which are representative in Chinese paper cutting arts.

In making methods, Foshan paper cutting is divided into cutting and carving. Most of the subjects of Foshan paper cutting are favorable to the laboring people, including the flowers, birds, fishes and animals that symbolize luck, or the favorite opera figures and folk stories, such as "dragon", "phoenix", "carp", "Tang Ming Emperor Visiting Yue Palace", "Change Flying To Moon", "Dragon Boat Race" and so on. The copper carving materials mainly have the colors of pink, rose color, blue and red-white, in a good harmonious and striking. The lining colors of copper lining materials are mainly the orange, pink, auramine, mustard yellow, purple, deep green and Cambridge blue.

Paper cutting plays an important part in Foshan local customs. The paper cuttings are used for decoration when important occasions coming, such as the festivals, wedding, funeral, birthday celebration and so on. For example, in Spring Festival, the doorhead 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. In addition, most of the paper cuttings are used on the articles for sacrifice.

Foshan is the original place of the Lingnan culture while Foshan paper cutting is the best artistic treasures which can represent Foshan folk culture.