Paper cutting is one of the oldest folk arts in China. In Luoyang, the patterned paper cutting is particularly characteristic, known for its ability to authentically preserve ancient traditional patterns.
Li Xiaodan is a university teacher and the fifth-generation inheritor of the Lu’an Liu Ai Tanyang Paper-cutting, an intangible cultural heritage project in Luoyang City. From a young age, she was influenced by the craft and began learning the art of Tanyang paper-cutting from her mother in 1994. After nearly two decades of hard work, in 2021, she became a representative inheritor of the Luoyang City intangible cultural heritage project for folk paper-cutting.
“Look, this is an old pattern passed down from our ancestors,” Li Xiaodan said. Tanyang is a technique in paper cutting. People use the Tanyang method to replicate an old pattern multiple times, and then they combine and create these replicated paper cut patterns, applying them to clothing, home furnishings, and some everyday household items through embroidery.
Li Xiaodan believes that the art of paper cutting is very suitable for inheritance in schools, allowing students to experience and understand this skill through hands-on practice. Nowadays, she and her apprentices persist in upholding traditional values while innovating, breathing new life and vitality into the art.
