Walking into the northeast folk paper-cutting, I will take you to appreciate different traditional culture and folk customs.

Northeast folk paper-cutting is created by laborers living in this area to meet their spiritual needs. Workers themselves are creators, users and appreciators. They express traditional culture and customs through paper-cutting, which has distinct regional art and life interest.

After the emergence of paper-cutting, workers of all ethnic groups, with their own intelligence and wisdom, gradually improved after long-term tempering in art and life practice, thus invented techniques such as tearing paper, bronzing, color matching, coloring and sketching, which increased the depth and breadth of paper-cutting. It is precisely because the paper-cut materials are easy to find, the techniques are simple, and it can't be circulated. It is almost spread all over the northeast, showing a state of popularization and winning people's love.

In Northeast China, paper-cutting first appeared in Ming Dynasty, mostly in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. As a mascot, it is pasted on walls and windows. Paper-cutting art is widely spread among the people, mainly using lamps to smoke, and using scissors to create some simple patterns of flowers, birds, animals and people to decorate hanging money and window grilles. In order to express the pursuit of life love and happy life, people express it through art forms such as paper cutting.

In our country, influenced by traditional ethics, beliefs and customs, red is easy to glow with emotion, especially passionate passion. Therefore, paper-cutting was endowed with China Red and China Cut, and red became the family color, auspicious color and festive color of paper-cutting. Northeast folk paper-cutting is mostly made of red paper, which is used in festivals, celebrations, birthdays, weddings, birthdays and other festive occasions, with profound implications.

In China's traditional folk customs, the sense of auspiciousness is manifested in various activities on holidays, which open the windows of people's hearts through paper-cutting. Luck gives people hope and comfort, confidence and strength. Generally speaking, it is expressed in the form of homophony or additional words of some natural images in paper-cutting, which conveys information by implication, makes the works full of philosophy and profound thoughts, and reflects the psychological reaction and national interest of the Chinese nation.

For example, peach, pine, cat and butterfly in paper-cut themes symbolize longevity, peony symbolizes wealth, bergamot and bat symbolize blessing, pine, bamboo and plum symbolize friendship, lotus symbolizes purity, and so on. Generally speaking, animals, plants, geometric patterns, figures and buildings have certain auspicious meanings in different occasions.

For example, the words "black dragon teaches son" and "born in Kowloon" in animal prints imply that the people hope that their children will have a successful career and that future generations will produce talents; "Dragonfly and Phoenix Dance" means that the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and the world is prosperous; "Dragon playing with pearls" and "Dragon playing with water" are metaphors of noble status, good luck, good weather, abundant crops and prosperity of six livestock; "Dragon and phoenix are auspicious" means sweet love, complete marriage and happy family.

Tiger is the object of worship of many ethnic groups, which is manifested in folk art. In the past, in the vast rural areas of Northeast China, because tigers have the cultural meaning of exorcising evil spirits, paper-cut window grilles in the shape of tigers were put on the windows every Spring Festival. Common patterns include a group of tigers, Shuang Hu, Phytolacca acinosa, tiger riding a tiger and so on. It is used to symbolize that Miao Zhuang men grow up like tigers and also have the cultural function of avoiding evil and welcoming the new.

Among the paper-cut patterns, the common patterns of "a mouse marries a woman" and "a mouse marries a woman" show beautiful legends. There is also a pattern of "mice eat grapes", which is a combination of mice with strong reproductive ability and many grapes, which means that children and grandchildren are full.

Phoenix is an animal in myths and legends. Like dragons, it became a symbol of imperial power in feudal dynasties. In folk paper-cut works, the phoenix is one of the mascots, and there are common patterns such as "auspicious dragon and phoenix", "phoenix dawn", "bird dawn", "double phoenix playing with pearls" and "phoenix dawn", which are used to symbolize happy marriage and family happiness.

Therefore, most of the paper-cut works created by folk artists in Northeast China choose animals, plants, utensils, buildings, characters, historical stories, gods and long-standing legends as themes, involving life scenes of farming, grassland grazing and hunting in forest areas, auspicious patterns and simple religious beliefs, showing the artist's rich inner world.

Paper-cutting has become one of the most popular art forms in folk art. Although it is simple and concise, the paper-cutting art has extremely profound connotation, which is the tacit understanding between folk artists and paper and the dialogue between heart and pattern.