Almost lost, ancient traditions living on in a new generation
Print Edition
PAPERCUTTING used to be ubiquitous in China. Traditionally, housewives would cut designs from paper, often with good wishes written on them, and attach them to windows and doors during festivals and special occasions.
It’s a skill that’s been largely lost in today’s hectic urban life. Some families still buy papercuttings for special occasions, such as weddings. Others just ignore the tradition completely.
But all is not lost for those who rue the passing of old, charming folk arts. During the recent Spring Festival, several students at Shanghai Zhongguo High School in the Xuhui District created stunning red papercuttings under a project sponsored by the district’s culture bureau.
It’s part of a push by the central and local governments to keep the nation’s cultural heritage alive in contemporary society.
Zhongguo High School began its first intangible cultural heritage program with knot buttons in 2012. It was so successful that the project was expanded last year to another nine crafts, including scissor-cuttings, dough figurines, woolen embroidery, palm plaiting and sachet-making. Ten other nearby schools have joined in the program.
“Our school is very special,” said Xi Yunfei, vice headmaster of Zhongguo High School, noting that Zhongguo.
“We are dedicated to passing on traditional culture.”
Sun Jihai, 68, an expert scissor-cutter, began teaching 30 students in the high school last year.
It’s not particularly difficult to learn, he told Shanghai Daily.
He said that last semester, he taught basic cutting methods, such as symmetrical cutting, hollowing and side-entry cutting, turning out well-known figures such as the 12 Chinese zodiac animals.
“This year, I am encouraging students to use their own creativity to cut out their personal favorite figures,” he said.
“Handicrafts can survive only if they change to reflect contemporary life. If you just copy designs, you will soon lose interest.”
Li Guoqing, who teaches how to make dough figurines, said he also encourages innovation among young students.
“Traditionally, we make the Monkey King and some other well-known classic figures,” he said. “Now, we make other figures that the children like. Handicrafts stay alive when people are interested enough in them to take them out of the classroom.”
Sun, who learned scissor-cutting from Lin Ximing, a famous Chinese painter and paper-cut artist, said his teaching used to be confined mostly to older people in community classes, but the increased public emphasis on traditional cultural heritage is drawing white-collar workers to his classes.
He said folk arts passed down through the centuries teach a lot about traditional values that are still important today.
“The 24 stories of filial piety are very popular themes in papercutting,” he said. “When we teach this handicraft, we pass on that knowledge.”
The deep-rooted concept of filial piety involves children putting their own lives aside for a few years after their parents die.
Sun said children especially love the legends behind some of the papercutting patterns, pointing to the two Chinese characters meaning happiness.
It is said that Wang Anshi, an economist, statesman and poet of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) saw the ‘happiness’ symbols posted on a house on his way to take the imperial examination.
It helped him answer one of the questions and do well on the exam. He later married the daughter of that household and wrote two “happinesses” to celebrate his outstanding performance in the exam and his wedding.
Displaying the happiness symbol has become a tradition for Chinese families on celebrations.
One of the more popular courses in cultural heritage education is martial arts.
Wu Junhui is head coach of Wing Chun, a form of Chinese martial arts, at Luwan No. 1 Primary School in Huangpu District.
He said teaching martial arts is not aimed at making students combative but rather at instilling in them traditional values such as righteousness, courage, faithfulness and loyalty. The rituals all have meanings, he said. Shanghai has 57 schools that now serve as centers for teaching and promoting cultural heritage education. Every year, schools and students who show outstanding performance in the curriculum are cited for awards.
Still, cultural heritage education has a way to go. The Research Center of Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage at Shanghai Normal University conducted a survey last year that found scant interest among many students.
More than 54 percent of the 1,500 students surveyed in 15 schools said they aren’t interested in cultural heritage, and only 29 percent said they might choose a folk art handicraft as a hobby.
“We found only 16 percent of local schools offer cultural heritage classes, and most were in suburban areas,” said center director Lu Jianfei.
At Luwan No. 1 Primary School, headmaster Wu Rongjin said that classes in Wing Chun are way more popular than classes in, say, Kunqu Opera.
“The slow melodies and complicated plots of Kunqu are not very interesting or easy for pupils,” she said. “So we try to engage their interest with accessible repertoires, such as ‘Beat the White Bone Demon Three Times’ — a story from ‘Journey to the West.’”
Lu said more educational resources need to be developed if teaching cultural heritage is to succeed.
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