Imagination trumps disability in artistic outpouring
Print Edition
LI Dai has suffered from congenital cataracts for 35 years, but poor eyesight has not dimmed her artistic vision. Since the age of eight, she has created more than 4,000 Chinese paper-cuts.
Earlier this month, Li’s artwork was displayed in the Zhejiang Province city of Jiaxing to celebrate Children’s Day. Soon, her first book will be published.
She lives with her parents in Minhang, where the balcony serves as a studio. When working, Li practically has her nose on the paper.
“People say my paper-cuts are special and different from traditional ones,” she said. “I think maybe it’s because I can see only a vague outline of everything, so I put my own imagination to work.”
Li’s father, retired art teacher Li Xiaoxian, still remembers the day his daughter was born. “Beautiful as a violin,” he described her.
But there was a dissonant note. Li Dai’s grandmother noticed there was something wrong with the baby’s eyes. Medical examination pronounced the child blind. Two surgical procedures later, Li emerged with eyesight, albeit very weak.
Doodling for starters
“When a person is standing in front of me, I can feel their presence but cannot see their faces,” she said.
Still, like many other children, Li loved to doodle when she first took pen in hand. But drawing required a lot of energy, so her father suggested she try making paper-cuts. He was surprised to see how well she took to it. She was already cutting out simple patterns, such as little animals and snowflakes, when she was around eight.
“I can grasp the main characteristic of a thing from a vague outline,” she said of her talent. “I feel I was born to it.”
Every day as a child, Li laid out new works she had created on the floor, waiting for her father to come home from work.
“I remember her looking up at me with an expression from of anticipation, but her eyes were always blank,” said Li Xiaoxian. “It always saddened me, but I never failed to tell her how happy I was to see her work and how much I wanted her to continue.”
Her father collected all her paper-cuts, bound them into volumes and made covers for them.
Images in mind’s eye
Traditional Chinese paper-cuts usually focus on standard themes like Spring Festival, the Chinese zodiac, flowers and birds. Li doesn’t do any of that.
Her themes are drawn from what she feels and from the images in her mind’s eye: herself in a shirt with a kitten printed on it; her grandparents’ fake-fighting; an old man with a dog.
Some of her works spring from fairy tales or her own stories. She has written and illustrated about 60 short stories in the past two years.
“They are my present to children,” she said. “I want my stories to bring them happiness and inspiration”
Li recalled a childhood book entitled called “365 Nights,” which presented one story for every day of the year. The book, one of her favorites, has inspired her to write a new version of “365 Nights” for children.
With the help of her father, Li sent some of her work to well-known artists to ask for their opinions. To her surprise, the reaction was all praise. Miao Huixin, an artist whom Time magazine listed as one of the “Top 10 Asian Artists” in 1996, said her work “embodies the beauty and genuineness” of the world. Zhao Yannian, a printmaking artist, called her work “the art of innocence.”
The praise, however, didn’t bring fame or wealth to her low-income family. For several years, Li tried to get exhibitions of her work mounted but didn’t meet with much success. “They suggested I auction the comments I received from established artists if I wanted to make big money,” she said. “But I think it’s too disrespectful to them, so I declined.”
Fortune finally smiled on Li when Lu Xueming, president of a Zhejiang media group, promised to publish a collection of her stories and paper-cuts. The book is now in the final pre-publication stage.
“I hope this will be the first step in people getting to know about my work,” she said. “I’m so looking forward to it.”
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