With a pair of scissors and a few red paper, Mr. Sun Xiaodong explained his art to the children patiently while demonstrating the handicraft. The scissors were flying, the paper was flying, and soon enough, a red-paper butterfly appeared and flipped in his hand… This was what happened at the event of the “Inheritance Walking into the Campus”.
Sun Xiaodong is a paper-cutting inheritor in Fei County. Paper-cutting is an intangible cultural heritage in Linyi. Mr. Sun has enjoyed painting and paper-cutting since childhood. After graduation from the middle school, he stepped into the road of paper-cutting art. From 1981 to 1983, he participated in the correspondence classes organized by the China Pape-cutting Association, which greatly improved his level of theory and practice in the art. His works focus on displaying the customs of Yimeng people and their praise of a beautiful life.
“The pattern of paper-cutting is important, but paper-cutting is not just cutting,” Sun Xiaodong said. He introduced the good paper-cutting as the reflection of the beauty through the artist’s eyes, a lyrical expression of the beauty through his understanding of the world. It is not difficult to see from Sun Xiaodong’s works that he has always been striving to reach his aesthetic expressions by his artistic creation. Through symbolic patterns, his art conveys people’s longing and pursuit of a better life.
Sun Xiaodong has published some dozens of works in various newspapers and magazines across the country since 1991. The work “High and Far in Sight ” won Yimengqing National Significance Award. His work “Four Seasons’ Flower Screen” was published in the “Yimeng Life Daily” and Qingdao “Peninsula Economic Daily”. With his understanding of the paper-cutting language and the related principles, Sun Xiaodong has established his own artistic personality and paper-cutting style.
In the process of creating paper-cutting works, Sun Xiaodong believes in both tradition and innovation. The paper-cut patterns that have been inherited for thousands of years should be inherited, but more importantly, the zeitgeist pulse should be revealed, according to Mr. Sun. He frequents art activities as well as intangible cultural heritage exhibitions. At these evens, he propagates his paper-cutting skills while draws inspiration from the exhibiters.
Talking about how to better inherite paper-cutting, Sun Xiaodong said: “To keep the heritage alive means to allow it to enter real life. The same is true for paper-cutting.” Everyone who loves paper-cutting, be old or young, is welcome to Sun Xiaodong to learn from his art.
“As a cultural symbol, paper-cutting carries the history and traditions of the country and the nation. As an inheritor, I am willing to let more people understand and learn paper-cutting, thus, to contribute more to this artform!” Sun Xiaodong explained.
Be the first to comment on "Dancing on the scissors: Inheritance of a Handicraft in Fei County, Shandong"