Paper-cutting, one of the important art styles in Chinese folk culture, is adopted to decorate life or match up with other folk customs and activities. Recently, the well-known paper-cutting master of Wuxi came to Jiangnan University and gave its international students a lecture on paper-cutting.

In the lecture, the master displayed her favorite pieces of work like Love Bird, Peace of Happiness, Double Happiness Plum, etc. These paper-cutting works conveys the connotation and essence of traditional Chinese culture through its special language. The large number of hollow outs and details in the paper-cutting works manifest the artistic level of a craftsman. As the international students were eager to have a try and make a paper-cutting work of their own, the master first let the students experience the secret of paper-cutting through a template with the theme of Horse of Instant Success. Though the students made the paper-cutting with the help of the template, they felt lacking the ability to do what they would like to do. With the master’s continued patient instructions, frequently correcting the students’ sitting posture and cutting techniques, the students finally succeeded in cutting out their own Horse of Instant Success.

With her own paper-cutting work in the hand, Imai Chieko, a student from Japan said that paper-cutting, as a kind of hollow-out art and one of the most popular Chinese folk art, gave viewers a visual sense of permeability and artistic enjoyment. “It is great to know about another art through the lecture about traditional Chinese culture. The lecture is a window for me to know about China and fall in love with China!” the Bangladesh student Sarkar Alamin said excitedly.

Wuxi Paper-cutting Master

Practising Paper-cutting

Patient Instruction

Achievement：Horse of Instant Success