Chinese Paper Cut Cultural Lessons with Crescent Girl’s School
On Monday, we had 6 art trainers to conduct Chinese Paper Cut to 6 classes of lovely Secondary 1 students from Crescent Girl’s School.
Jacquelyn’s chinese paper cut programme was well received and the trainers who supported this programme had a lovely time learning more about this technique and cultural references behind the art. We also had to converse and conduct the class in Mandarin. This is the first for all of us!
We shared with the class the history and cultural roots of the paper cut art form and taught them 2 different techniques of folding the paper and cutting. No penknives were used in this workshop, just lots of coloured paper, glue and scissors!
Chinese paper cut has a long history dating back thousands of years ago in China. It was a natural progression of craftsmen to start cutting papers when the chinese invented paper. People find hope and comfort in expressing wishes with paper cuttings. For example, at a wedding ceremony, red paper cuttings bearing the word ‘Xi’ which means happiness is to provide an idea of happiness to the newly wed. Upon the birthday of a senior, the word ‘Shou’ will be used to represent longevity and will add delight to the whole celebration. An intricate pattern of plump children cuddling fish signifies that every year there will be abundant in wealth.
About scyablog
Singapore Contemporary Young Artists 