The Origin of Liaocheng Paper-cut Art

It is difficult to prove its source. However, at present, most Liaocheng residents moved in from other places in the early Ming Dynasty. During the war in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, Liaocheng was the main battlefield, and the residents were displaced and became ruins. Ten residents died at that time. Later, the Ming dynasty unified the world and implemented the policy of "resettling the fields", and a large number of immigrants came to Liaocheng. Most of them moved from Hongdong County, Shanxi Province, the rest from Dongsan Prefecture (Deng, Cai and Qing), and a few from Henan, Hebei and Jiangnan. The construction of villages by large-scale immigrants reveals the important contents of Liaocheng's social history, cultural history and economic development history from one side. This content is extremely rich in Liaocheng paper-cutting art, which has a long local historical accumulation and combines different characteristics of east, west, north and south.

In view of the people's hobbies and habits, mass cultural workers in Liaocheng began to pay attention to the excavation of folk paper-cutting and vigorously revive the art of folk paper-cutting. 1979 In the spring, Chiping County Cultural Center first conducted a thorough investigation through various cultural stations, found more than 200 skilled old artists, and collected more than a thousand paper-cut works in various forms. Through sorting, more than 80 outstanding works were selected, and the "First Folk Paper-cut Art Exhibition in Chiping County" was held on July 1 980. After the exhibition, it caused a great sensation. This activity aroused people's interest in paper-cutting art and inspired some young people's enthusiasm for learning paper-cutting. New people appear constantly, the number of works increases and the quality improves. Won the grand prize in provincial, national and even international exhibition competitions.

Liaocheng paper-cut is a traditional handicraft of Han nationality in Liaocheng, Shandong Province. As early as the Han and Tang dynasties, folk women used gold and silver foil and colored silks to cut into a winning fashion, and flowers and birds were decorated with sideburns. Then it gradually developed. In festivals, colored paper is cut into stories of flowers, animals or people and pasted on windows (called "window grilles") and lintels (called "door stickers") as decoration, as well as as as gift decoration or embroidery patterns. Paper-cutting is widely circulated among the people and has a long history. Paper-cut works of 1500 years ago have been unearthed in Xinjiang.