Happy Chinese New Year. This is the year of Tiger!
(I am a Chinese Tiger! Happy Tiger year~)
Most of the time, Chinese display the paper cutting during the new year time or when people are getting married;it is not only a decoration for house, but also symbolizes happiness. Because some part of the Chinese paper cutting are cut out, it can be displayed at the window to create special shadows in the house. Therefore, Chinese paper cutting also called “chuang-hua” (窗花), it means the flower for the window. Almost all the icons that can be found in Chinese paper cutting represent specific meaning.
(These two are cute Chinese tigers!)
Chinese paper cutting does not only about paper cutting, but also about paper folding. There are many different ways to fold the paper. Different ways of folding paper will cause different results when cutting paper. In other words, people who is good at paper cutting, also need to be good at paper folding.
Because papers need to be folded several times before cutting, the best paper for paper cutting is the rice paper. It is soft and easy to cut. If people use white rice paper, people can the dye the paper cut into different colors.
I taught a paper cutting lesson last year by using tissue papers. Because of the tissue paper is semi-transparent, when overlay different color papers, images become more interesting.
InAEA 