Paper Cutting of Peony flowerw
Auspicious Paper Cutting
Modern type stickers used in place of traditonal paper cuttings
When I was a child, I would see the adult ladies in the household cutting pieces of red paper to fashion auspicious symbols to be placed on top of the offerings to the deities. Those ladies who are more creative would even cut out sophisticated pictures to be put up on the wall as decoration. The art of Chinese Paper Cutting is created by hand cutting with a pair of scissors to achieve sophisticated pictures and design with greater intricacy than machines can produce. It is referred to as Jianzhi (剪纸). Because the cut outs are also used to decorate doors and windows, they are sometimes referred to "chuāng huā" (窗花), meaning Window Flower.
Nowadays, we can buy stickers with auspicious wordings and symbols to decorate our offerings to the deities as well as factory produced wall decorations. It is rather sad that this art form is not practised by as many people as it used to be. Okay! Bring me a piece of red paper and a pair of scissors!Sources:
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