Asian Heritage Month Celebration 2007
The Traditional Chinese Paper Cut Arts webpage consists of:
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Introduction
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General Information
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Video
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Special Acknowledgment
Introduction
The Chinese Club's Presentation called "Traditional Chinese Paper Cut Arts" was held on May 23, 2007. The event was successful. Our feedback shows that many people are interested in the traditional paper cut arts. Therefore, we have developed this web page to share the interesting information with our club readers. This webpage consists of general information of the traditional Chinese paper cut arts, video and special acknowledgment.
General Information
The traditional art of Chinese paper cutting was developed during the Han dynasty. The influence of paper cutting on continental Europe and Asia can be traced back to the seventh century.
By the 14th century, the art had spread to Japan and the Middle East, and Europe via the Silk Road; and by the 15th century, paper cut art works had become an integral part of the everyday life of the people and had developed many diverse styles.
However, the art of paper cutting was on the verge of dying out during the 19th century as China experienced successive years of devastating warfare due to domestic turmoil and foreign invasion.
Today, many valuable ancient paper cutouts are kept in the national museums of China, Taiwan and other Asian countries. In later years, paper cut art has ranged from clipping complicated patterns using a tiny pair of scissors to make cutouts for window decorations, clothes-making stencils, or embroidery patterns for shoes.
Machine-cut reproductions of paper cuttings for commercial purposes can only remain at the level of mere handicrafts, but hand-made paper cut can be extraordinary, especially for animated presentations in movies, puppet shows and window-shopping displays.
The Traditional Chinese Paper Cut Arts Video
We would like to share with you some of the Chinese paper cut art-work. Below is a video demo of the Chinese Paper Cut Arts.
