Why is the paper-cut of China's excellent traditional culture still circulating for hundreds of years?

? Folk paper-cutting is an artistic style created by working people to meet their spiritual needs, and it has been applied and spread among them. It exists in the deep soil of workers' life, is not restricted by utilitarian thoughts and values, embodies the most basic aesthetic concept and spiritual quality of human art, and has distinctive artistic characteristics and life interest.

Technically speaking, paper-cutting is actually cutting and carving on paper to express the image to be expressed. Working people have perfected this art form in their long-term artistic practice and life practice by virtue of their own intelligence. Formed a variety of techniques such as tearing paper, ironing paper, color matching, color matching, dyeing, sketching, etc., so that the expressive force of paper-cutting extends infinitely in depth and breadth. As thin as a silkworm spinning silk and as thick as a big brush. Its different forms can be attached to the pendulum lining or hung in the air. Because the tools and materials of paper-cutting are simple and popular, and the techniques are easy to master, it has irreplaceable characteristics of other art categories. Therefore, this art form has spread almost all over China's urban and rural areas since ancient times, and won the people's love.

In human childhood, there is no distinction between "folk" and "non-folk". With the continuous development of civilization, the emergence of social classes and the division of functions, the historical concept of "folk art" relative to "court art" and "literati art" has been formed. Different types of works reflect the aesthetic standards of different classes and should be the basis of their boundaries. As far as paper-cutting is concerned, not all works cut and carved with paper can be described as "folk paper-cutting". In the history, there are many artists who cut paper specifically for the holiday customs of aristocratic citizens, and there are also many examples of literati painters painting for artists or professional artists using paper-cutting techniques to create. This kind of work is qualitatively different from the works created by working people for themselves, and most of them have been divorced from the aesthetic nature of workers, so it is impossible to be generally accepted by the public.

Although some works are also circulated in some areas, they will eventually be unrecognizable in the variation because they are not created by the people themselves. Even today, the paper-cut works appearing in mass artistic creation activities in many areas cannot be confused with folk paper-cuts. Mass creative activities can also take the form of folk paper-cutting, creating good works that the masses love and enjoy, and then spreading them among the people, but its creative purpose is often divorced from the needs of their own lives, and even expresses the intention of counselors. Although closely related, it is not a concept.

Therefore, when studying the scope of folk paper-cutting, we can't just look at the superficial form and think that all paper-cutting is folk paper-cutting, but ignore whether it is necessary for people's own spiritual life, whether it is understood and accepted by the masses, and whether it is widely circulated among the people. At present, the weakness of the basic theory of folk culture has caused confusion in understanding, which makes many people think that anything made by artists or craftsmen living in the folk, such as ivory carving and snuff bottles, can be classified into the category of folk art, which should be corrected. The creation, aesthetics and application of folk art, including folk paper-cutting, are inseparable from the soil in which workers live, which is also the obvious difference between it and other works of art that coexist with it.