In a rich family cultural atmosphere, the Lu family's paper-cutting skills have been passed down from generation to generation.
Each paper-cutting work carries the unique memories of three generations of the Lu family.
Zhouzhi County is steeped in profound folk culture. Influenced by opera and shadow puppetry, this land has given birth to a wide variety of opera character paper-cutting skills with deep cultural connotations. In Yuxing Village, Zhongnan Town, Zhouzhi County, three generations of the Lu family—Ge Yan, Pu Yuhua, and Lu Xiaochun—have continued this unique Lu family paper-cutting technique through folding, cutting, and coloring on their fingertips within the limited space.
Ge Yan: The Operatic World Carved on Paper
The Lu family, located in Yuxing Village, Zhongnan Town, Zhouzhi County, is a scholarly and official family that values both farming and education. During the Qing Dynasty's Qianlong reign, Lu Yuanshi, who served as the county magistrate of Xinle County (now Xinle City) in Hebei Province, retired to his hometown and built a residence. After its completion, he named it "Pu Bian Tang" to remind his descendants of the hardships their ancestors faced in establishing their legacy. The Lu family has always been renowned for its governance of the household and scholarship. In this rich family cultural atmosphere, the "Lu family paper-cutting" with its distinctive operatic cultural characteristics was born.
On July 21st, a reporter visited Yuxing Village, Zhongnan Town, Zhouzhi County. Lu Xiaochun, now 72 years old, said that she learned paper-cutting from her grandmother. Her grandmother, Ge Yan (1904—1965), was a well-known expert in embroidery and paper-cutting at that time. In Lu Xiaochun's memory, her grandmother always sat in the courtyard of the "Pu Bian Tang" residence, embroidering and cutting paper with a smile. During festivals or celebrations, wealthy families from the county town would come to the Lu family to order paper-cuttings, and villagers would gather around to ask her grandmother to help with paper-cutting patterns, creating a lively atmosphere. Lu Xiaochun recalled, "My grandmother was a very elegant person. She was skillful, able to cut paper, embroider, and manage finances. Because of her, I developed an interest in paper-cutting and opera."
As a child, Lu Xiaochun lived with her grandparents. Every evening, her grandmother would sit cross-legged on the kang (a traditional Chinese heated brick bed), cutting paper under the kerosene lamp while telling Lu Xiaochun the stories behind the paper-cuttings. Young Lu Xiaochun was fascinated and gradually became attracted to paper-cutting and opera. Seeing her interest, Ge Yan gave Lu Xiaochun the opera character patterns that had been smoked with kerosene lamp soot and asked her to imitate the "smoked patterns" for cutting. Speaking of her first paper-cutting experience, Lu Xiaochun still remembers vividly: "The first opera characters I cut were Gao Wenju and Zhang Meiying from the Qinqiang opera 'Meeting in the Flower Pavilion.' As I cut, my grandmother told me the story beside me and praised my work as being quite lifelike."
After her first "work" was affirmed by Ge Yan, Lu Xiaochun was encouraged and ran home every day after school to learn paper-cutting from her grandmother. Sometimes she would cut paper all night long without stopping. At that time, Lu Xiaochun had already fallen deeply in love with paper-cutting.
In Lu Xiaochun's heart, her grandmother taught her more than just paper-cutting.
Once, when Lu Xiaochun was nine years old, she tore her poorly cut work "Pea Flower" into pieces in frustration. Instead of scolding her, Ge Yan asked her to use paste to piece together the torn work bit by bit. After she calmed down, Ge Yan earnestly told her, "Creating patterns is not easy. One must learn to respect art and cherish paper-cutting works." Her grandmother's words planted a seed of respect for art and appreciation for works in Lu Xiaochun's heart.
Pu Yuhua: Recording Ordinary Life through Paper-Cutting
Over the years, Lu Xiaochun has developed a habit of collecting paper-cuttings. "Look at this piece, 'Lotus Bears Noble Sons,' which is my grandmother's work, and next to it is 'Rats Eating Grapes,' created by my mother, Pu Yuhua. Compared to each other, my grandmother's paper-cutting is more delicate," Lu Xiaochun said as she sat by the window, slowly flipping through old books filled with neatly placed paper-cutting works from her grandmother and mother.
In 1942, Pu Yuhua married into the Lu family. Because both she and her mother-in-law enjoyed paper-cutting, they got along very well. They were proficient in both monochrome and colored paper-cutting. Every Spring Festival, the dyed window decorations in the Lu family's home were the result of their joint efforts. The color palette used for dyeing was an inherited "blue and white coiled branch lotus pattern six-pool color palette." Later, Ge Yan passed down a batch of exquisite and rare Qing Dynasty embroidery patterns, including the "Lan Die Tu" with gold-thread embroidery, to Pu Yuhua and Lu Xiaochun.
Unlike Ge Yan's delicate works, Pu Yuhua's paper-cutting mostly reflected the daily life of farmers at that time. Works such as "Dragonfly and Crab" and "Integrity and Cleanliness" were all created using vegetables and fruits as elements. Moreover, many of Pu Yuhua's paper-cuttings were made from children's used homework books. One can imagine the elderly Pu Yuhua sitting under the kerosene lamp in her spare time, recording her observations and experiences through paper-cutting. These works have become her unique memories of that era.
Lu Xiaochun: Every Cut and Shape Reflects Craftsmanship
"My grandmother understood opera but couldn't sing it. I sing while I cut, and I feel very comfortable after completing each piece," Lu Xiaochun said. Having learned paper-cutting and embroidery from her grandmother and mother since childhood, Lu Xiaochun also developed a love for Qinqiang opera. She has played roles such as Wang Chun'e in "San Niang Teaches Her Son," Wang Baochuan in "Wudianpo," and Su San in "Female Prisoner Escort." Over the years, Lu Xiaochun has persisted in singing while cutting paper. She is best known for her group sets of colored and dyed historical opera character paper-cuttings and auspicious floral paper-cuttings. Her works integrate paper-cutting and painting, with unique shapes, vivid expressions, and rich, heavy coloring. Therefore, Lu Xiaochun is hailed as a "paper-cutting marvel."
In 2009, Lu Xiaochun was awarded the title of "Shaanxi Provincial Women's Folk Handicraft Expert." In 2010, her paper-cutting works, such as "Zhu Chundeng Feifan," won first place at the "Second Shaanxi Provincial Farmers' Cultural Festival." In 2012, she was named a provincial-level inheritor of intangible cultural heritage in Shaanxi Province's third batch. In 2014, her works won the gold award at the "National Opera Paper-Cutting Competition." In 2017, she was honored as a "Contemporary Chinese Art Master"... However, in her view, these achievements are still not enough.
It is not easy for a person to persist in doing one thing throughout their life, but for Lu Xiaochun, it is a joy. She said while cutting paper, "A good paper-cutting work must have cultural connotations to be passed down. The colored and dyed paper-cutting technique is three parts cutting and seven parts dyeing. Mythological characters, historical opera figures, auspicious animals and birds, flowers, as well as musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, paintings, and vegetables and fruits are all subjects I enjoy creating."
To better preserve the Lu family's paper-cutting tradition, Lu Xiaochun broke the family's long-standing rule of "not teaching outsiders." She is willing to teach anyone who is interested, regardless of their surname. She even built six rooms at her own expense to establish the Zhouzhi Paper-Cutting Heritage Studio. Since her retirement over a decade ago, she has been teaching paper-cutting for free in schools, reaching thousands of students. She has also promoted Zhouzhi paper-cutting beyond her hometown. During the 2019 Spring Festival, she spent a month teaching paper-cutting for free at the Xi'an Bell Tower... Over the years, whenever she heard that someone in her hometown was interested in paper-cutting, she would invite them to her studio.
When it comes to the next generation of Lu family paper-cutting inherit