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WonderPaper craft heritage fact

Chinese paper cutting, called jianzhi, turns a single sheet of paper into connected patterns cut with scissors or knives. The cut-outs decorate windows and doors at the Spring Festival and carry good wishes to weddings and birthdays.

Chinese paper cutting

ArtCulture

The story behind the card

Paper was invented in China, and the oldest surviving paper cut-outs, circles of repeating patterns from about the sixth century, were found in tombs in Xinjiang, in north-west China. Every opening has to leave enough paper to hold the rest together, so a design must also work as a structure. The most familiar pieces are the red 'window flowers' pasted up for the Spring Festival and the double-happiness character cut for weddings. Styles vary by region, from bold northern folk figures to the delicate work of southern cities such as Yangzhou. Girls traditionally learned the art at home from older women, and many cutters fold the paper to cut several layers at once. UNESCO listed Chinese paper cutting as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.

Türkçe oku
Çin'de jianzhi denen kâğıt kesme sanatında tek bir kâğıt, makas ya da bıçakla birbirine bağlı desenlere dönüştürülür. Ortaya çıkan süslemeler Bahar Bayramı'nda pencereleri ve kapıları süsler, düğünlere ve doğum günlerine iyi dilekler taşır.

Kâğıt Çin'de icat edildi. Günümüze ulaşan en eski kesme kâğıt işleri, yaklaşık 6. yüzyıldan kalma, tekrar eden desenlerle dolu dairelerdir ve Çin'in kuzeybatısındaki Sincan'da mezarlarda bulunmuştur. Her boşluk, geri kalan parçaları bir arada tutacak kadar kâğıt bırakmalıdır; bu yüzden bir desen aynı zamanda sağlam bir yapı olmak zorundadır. En tanıdık örnekler, Bahar Bayramı'nda camlara yapıştırılan kırmızı “pencere çiçekleri” ile düğünler için kesilen “çifte mutluluk” yazısıdır. Üsluplar bölgeden bölgeye değişir: kuzeyde kalın hatlı halk figürleri, Yangzhou gibi güney kentlerinde ise ince işçilik öne çıkar. Kızlar bu sanatı geleneksel olarak evde yaşlı kadınlardan öğrenirdi; birçok usta kâğıdı katlayarak birkaç katı birden keser. UNESCO Çin kâğıt kesme sanatını 2009'da Somut Olmayan Kültürel Miras listesine aldı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Chinese paper cutting
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