Chinese Culture Theme Activity —— Chinese Paper-cutting
Paper-cutting is one of the traditional Chinese folk arts. The first Chinese culture theme activity this semester, Chinese paper-cutting experience, was organized by Chinese Language Education Center in the afternoon of April 24th, 2014. All the participants showed great interest in paper-cutting. Under the guidance of Ms. Ni Hongxia, they finished a lot of fancy works and experienced this traditional Chinese cultural activity.
At first, Ms. Ni introduced the use and cultural connotation of paper-cut, the usage of paper-cutting instruments and paper-cut designs by texts and pictures. Then students appreciated representatively excellent paper-cut works. Through the appreciation, they could understand the paper-cut designs used in the works
Later in the practice, Ms. Ni chose the most common two designs, bean sprout shape and zigzag shape. After students drew the shapes on the practice paper, Ms. Ni taught the paper-cutting and they practiced.
Then it is the formal paper-cutting part. The first work, an eight folds mission flower paper-cut, was done through video clip. The second one was created by students referred to former paper-cut designs. They drew random shapes so the works were different from each other. The third one is the most difficult but the most beautiful and it was applied by a lot of zigzag shapes. When students opened their works, they were full of sense of achievement.
The last part was craving the shapes of little animals by graver. Students chose the shapes of horse, pig, rabbit and tiger. As it was the first time for they to crave, so some students couldn’t do it very well at the beginning. But later they gradually grasped the technique and finished all the craving. Though it was a hard working for students, they were very happy.
Through this activity, students know more about the history and cultural connotation of Chinese paper-cutting while through the experience, they feel the charm of traditional Chinese folk arts distinctly.