Cutting the dragon's whiskers
By Tan Weiyun |
March 7, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
PAPER-CUT master Li Guohua is so skilled he can create the thin and curling whiskers of an auspicious dragon. Tan Weiyun interviews the old farmer who turned in his pitchfork for scissors.
Wielding his "Fantastic Four" - a pair of scissors, pieces of red paper, a ruler and a handy knife - Li Guohua cuts and carves out his own realm.
The 68-year-old farmer in remote Jinwang Village of Qingcun Town, Fengxian District, is the paper-cut king, and the only district resident who is a master in this ancient folk handicraft.
"I'll send you four butterflies. Watch closely," Li says as he deftly manipulates the small, razor-sharp scissors that hover and quickly snip a piece of red paper.
With some neat cuts and razzle-dazzle paper folds, in just five minutes he conjures up four butterflies fluttering around a cluster of flowers. "They look as if they would fly away," he says of the delicate piece.
Li has lived in the half-hidden village and worked his land all his life, but his virtuoso paper-cutting skills have made him something of a celebrity in his village and neighboring towns.
His decorations are indispensable to local wedding celebrations, festival feasts and dinner parties.
There is nothing Li can't cut - various flowers, bamboo, auspicious animals and even "portraits" and personal silhouettes.
Patterns of water lilies and mandarin ducks, two emblems for happy marriage and true love, are always used at wedding parties. Red-crowned cranes and chrysanthemums express wishes for longevity and are often presented to elders. Fish and sheaves of grain, symbolizing a prosperous new year, are pasted on front doors during the Lunar New Year festival.
Sometimes Li cuts paper items to be burned at funerals. They are items the deceased used or loved, such as wine bottles, favorite foods, cigarettes and other things.
"My neighbors and fellow villagers often ask me to cut for them and I'm so happy that they like my works," Li says with a broad grin. "For me, it's just a little favor."
Li started cutting seriously around 35 years ago. When he was a boy, he loved to paint graffiti on brick walls and stone paths around the village. He was good with his hands and liked handicrafts, paper folding, painting and free cutting. Then he got hooked on the elaborate red paper cut decorations pasted on windows and door frames.
"No one taught me, I learned by myself," Li recalls. For inspiration he read lots of books and comic strips and studied newspaper illustrations and New Year's calendars decorated with traditional images from folklore.
He developed his own way of cutting and carving, making his own knives, scissors and implements, some as small as a needle, others as large as a kitchen chopper.
"I wear out more than 10 pairs of scissors every years," he says.
He also needs a pen or pencil to sketch, a ruler and paper clips to fasten multiple layers together while he cuts.
He chooses his paper carefully - thick, thin, white (usually for funerals), red (for festivals), color-fast or easily faded. Some are sprayed with gold powder.
Li seldom goes to town, except to buy paper. A paper-cut artist should master two skills - cutting with a pair of scissors and carving with a knife.
"As a matter of fact, cutting or shearing is more difficult than carving," says Qian Xiaohong, director of Qingcun Town's Folk Art Center.
"You have to visualize the entire image before you put scissors to paper because the paper is folded many times. You have to have a cool and organized mind," she says. "One small mistake or bad judgment can destroy the whole work."
Carving is much easier; once there's a sketch it can be carved little by little.
With more than three decades of experience, Li can quickly make clean, neat cuts, though even the master makes an occasional mistake.
"Then I will cut it out and turn it into another pattern," he says.
Some easy patterns take only a few minutes, while big projects require weeks.
One of his notable creations, and one of which he is very proud, is an 80cm-by-100cm scene of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the Pudong New Area. From first sketch to final cut, it took more than 10 days, working day and night with scarcely any rest - he wanted to maintain the momentum.
In the work a giant dragon hovers in the sky above the tower and skyscrapers along the Huangpu River. The Nanpu Bridge can be seen and there's a group of farmers beating traditional drums.
The work is so delicate that even the dragon's whiskers are thin as hair and are vivid and neat.
Li's eyesight isn't what it was and he must wear glasses to work at night,.
"But my hands are still powerful and steady," he says. "They don't tremble when it comes to cutting the details."
Wielding his "Fantastic Four" - a pair of scissors, pieces of red paper, a ruler and a handy knife - Li Guohua cuts and carves out his own realm.
The 68-year-old farmer in remote Jinwang Village of Qingcun Town, Fengxian District, is the paper-cut king, and the only district resident who is a master in this ancient folk handicraft.
"I'll send you four butterflies. Watch closely," Li says as he deftly manipulates the small, razor-sharp scissors that hover and quickly snip a piece of red paper.
With some neat cuts and razzle-dazzle paper folds, in just five minutes he conjures up four butterflies fluttering around a cluster of flowers. "They look as if they would fly away," he says of the delicate piece.
Li has lived in the half-hidden village and worked his land all his life, but his virtuoso paper-cutting skills have made him something of a celebrity in his village and neighboring towns.
His decorations are indispensable to local wedding celebrations, festival feasts and dinner parties.
There is nothing Li can't cut - various flowers, bamboo, auspicious animals and even "portraits" and personal silhouettes.
Patterns of water lilies and mandarin ducks, two emblems for happy marriage and true love, are always used at wedding parties. Red-crowned cranes and chrysanthemums express wishes for longevity and are often presented to elders. Fish and sheaves of grain, symbolizing a prosperous new year, are pasted on front doors during the Lunar New Year festival.
Sometimes Li cuts paper items to be burned at funerals. They are items the deceased used or loved, such as wine bottles, favorite foods, cigarettes and other things.
"My neighbors and fellow villagers often ask me to cut for them and I'm so happy that they like my works," Li says with a broad grin. "For me, it's just a little favor."
Li started cutting seriously around 35 years ago. When he was a boy, he loved to paint graffiti on brick walls and stone paths around the village. He was good with his hands and liked handicrafts, paper folding, painting and free cutting. Then he got hooked on the elaborate red paper cut decorations pasted on windows and door frames.
"No one taught me, I learned by myself," Li recalls. For inspiration he read lots of books and comic strips and studied newspaper illustrations and New Year's calendars decorated with traditional images from folklore.
He developed his own way of cutting and carving, making his own knives, scissors and implements, some as small as a needle, others as large as a kitchen chopper.
"I wear out more than 10 pairs of scissors every years," he says.
He also needs a pen or pencil to sketch, a ruler and paper clips to fasten multiple layers together while he cuts.
He chooses his paper carefully - thick, thin, white (usually for funerals), red (for festivals), color-fast or easily faded. Some are sprayed with gold powder.
Li seldom goes to town, except to buy paper. A paper-cut artist should master two skills - cutting with a pair of scissors and carving with a knife.
"As a matter of fact, cutting or shearing is more difficult than carving," says Qian Xiaohong, director of Qingcun Town's Folk Art Center.
"You have to visualize the entire image before you put scissors to paper because the paper is folded many times. You have to have a cool and organized mind," she says. "One small mistake or bad judgment can destroy the whole work."
Carving is much easier; once there's a sketch it can be carved little by little.
With more than three decades of experience, Li can quickly make clean, neat cuts, though even the master makes an occasional mistake.
"Then I will cut it out and turn it into another pattern," he says.
Some easy patterns take only a few minutes, while big projects require weeks.
One of his notable creations, and one of which he is very proud, is an 80cm-by-100cm scene of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the Pudong New Area. From first sketch to final cut, it took more than 10 days, working day and night with scarcely any rest - he wanted to maintain the momentum.
In the work a giant dragon hovers in the sky above the tower and skyscrapers along the Huangpu River. The Nanpu Bridge can be seen and there's a group of farmers beating traditional drums.
The work is so delicate that even the dragon's whiskers are thin as hair and are vivid and neat.
Li's eyesight isn't what it was and he must wear glasses to work at night,.
"But my hands are still powerful and steady," he says. "They don't tremble when it comes to cutting the details."
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