Paper-cutting Seen Through the Prism of Algorithm and History

It was cold and dreary, and became rainy toward the evening on a working Sunday in Shanghai. But on the second floor of a bookstore in Hongkou District, it was a world of warmth, laughter and red, with dozens of paper-cut samples displayed on the walls.

In front of a big screen at the former site of Uchiyama Shoten (Neishan Bookshop) on Sichuan Road N., two young students explained how, while studying in the United Kingdom, they gained new insights into this ancient craft believed to have originated in China.

The two students, Niu Zijia (Amy) from Cheltenham Ladies' College, and Wang Yijun from Tonbridge School, began to appreciate the charm of Chinese paper-cutting not just as a cultural heritage, but as a source of strength empowering them to build a better future, creatively.

With support from renowned paper-cutting artists and the Hongkou District Women's Federation, their aspiration evolved into an exchange on art that went beyond the immediate confines of paper-cutting, as a dialogue titled "A Letter of Paper Written in Time," which purported to delve into the intricacies "Between Mind and Algorithm."

"Paper-cutting in itself is a kind of language," said Xu Yang, a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor, at the event held on January 4. Xu turned 77 the previous day, but his agility and perspicacity belied his age.

"If you look around the paper-cutting pieces displayed on the walls, none of them is strictly realistic, in contrast to Western paintings which place such a high premium on verisimilitude. Paper-cutting shows Chinese people's yearning for a good life, in a palpable yet highly imaginative manner," said Xu.

He cited the example of a paper-cutting piece of horse, an animal chosen specifically because the Chinese New Year that begins on February 17 is the Year of the Horse.

"Does it take after a real horse? Not at all. Apparently, the whole pattern is a product of imagination," he noted.

Imagination works in other aspects.

Xu pointed to three fruit images enshrined in Chinese paper-cutting: the peach, suggesting longevity; the pomegranate, as an auspicious wish for fertility, evidenced in its myriad seeds; and the fingered citron (foshou), as a sign of prosperity, for the adeptness at clasping much wealth with so many fingers.

Significantly, Xu explained, the paper-cutting patterns of these fruits are not based on still-life, and the cultural connections have been derived from legends, or flattering sentiments elicited by homophones.

The two young students also attempted to interpret the handicraft from more theoretical perspectives.

For Wang, his insight was partly inspired by roommates at Tonbridge School, who wondered whether the paper-cuts were machine-made, given their consummate artistry. This set Wang thinking, with the conclusion that paper-cutting is a highly compressed and efficient system of information, and thus should be deemed as a cultural carrier whose origins could be traced with precision.

He envisioned endowing each paper-cutting work with a digital pedigree that records details about its creator, the symbolism behind its design, and its journey through successive hands. This way, when users share blessings via a mini-program, cultural interpretations, provided in both Chinese and English, will add depth and accessibility to the blessings. In doing so, every person who shares these blessings becomes a disseminator of cultural genes.

Meanwhile, Niu, a student of global civilization history, prefers to frame paper-cutting within the context of non-verbal narrative – seen in ancient Chinese prayers for seasonal transitions, rituals commemorating birth and death, practices to ward off illness, and broader reverence for the awe-inspiring forces of nature.

"We prefer to relegate paper-cutting to a folk custom or something ornamental. But if we view it as a sort of visual literature, then it is elevated into another sort of history, history not about such big personages as kings and emperors, but more about the plebeian sense of the universe and time," observed Niu.

But the "A Letter of Paper Written in Time" event served social purposes.

As Guo Juan, deputy director of the Hongkou District Women's Federation, pointed out, it proved invaluable for strengthening parent-child bonds while facilitating the inheritance of the finest elements of traditional Chinese culture.

The paper-cutting works donated at the event will be used for exhibition, helping to foster parent-child communication. Meanwhile, "A Paper Letter Written in Time" will be scaled up as a model cultural enrichment initiative for young people.