Craftform

Folk art - China

Chinese Folk paper cutting:
The art of paper cutting is created by common laboring people who wanted to entertain themselves in the spare time with their delicate hands. These people depict their lives simply but vividly, conveying their inward world frankly and sincerely. In the long process of artistic practice and accumulation, Chinese paper cutting has featured a distinctive local flavor and a strong sense of life, which turns itself into a unique art form. The subject of Chinese paper cutting are very wide, including fairy tales and legends, opera figures, birds and beasts, insects, fish, flower and fruit. All them are easily found in common life. What is more, Chinese paper cutting always reflects people’s aspiration for happiness, auspiciousness and conjugal bliss. During the long practice, a special aesthetic concept and ideology was formed in oriented paper cutting, a kind of conceptual art was born in China.

Chinese peasant painting:
About 70% or 800 million of the Chinese population are peasants. Chinese Peasant Painting or Chinese Folk Painting reflects both styles and scenes of the peasants' lives in the vast countryside of China.
Chinese Peasant Painting is both ancient and young. It is ancient because it originates from the thousand year traditions of embroidering, batik, paper cutting and wall painting. It is young because as a genre of painting it has emerged within the last thirty years with the help of trained artists. Peasant art is totally free of staleness and has a vigorous artistic impact that is strong, sincere and bold. Its exaggerated modeling, distortion and surrealistic style can give a feeling of truthfulness and naivete. The vivid color and composition are very imaginative and cheerfully decorative. The art posses the simplicity of people who live away from the complexity of big city life. Throughout China, there are more than forty so-called "Painting Villages." These villages specialize in various forms and styles of folk art.

Know something about China before your coming, and I will show you some pictures of the “Chinese folk paper cut” and “Chinese peasant painting” if you need.

Shao Yun
Tel: +86-13572254906
E-mail:folkart.inchina@gmail.com