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Cutting down to the roots(附图)
http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/06/25 09:44  上海英文星报


  ONE can't imagine that the delicate yet vigorous paper dragon was created only by a pair of scissors the size of a person's palm until watching Wang Jianzhong actually do the cutting work. Wang picked up a piece of paper, which seemed to be a page from a magazine with a Coco-Cola advertisement on it. Like a Taiji practitioner, he remained poised for a moment in meditative trance, completely immobile.

  Suddenly, a few seconds later, he raised his head and began rapidly cutting the paper. The paper, held in his left hand, was continuously turned in different directions in a lightning series of exact movements. The scissors in his right hand were moving through the paper like a snake swimming freely through the water. For a moment, it was difficult to understand the bizarre shape emerging from the paper, but then it suddenly became obvious - the vivid head of a dragon with turned-up whiskers.

  "Every detail of the image has been carved into my mind after endless practice, so I do not need to hesitate to think during the process," said Wang after finishing the paper dragon within one minute and 10 seconds.

  If one gets closer to Wang's right hand, the one holding the scissor, the secret of this perfectly skilled performance of paper cutting emerges. The joints of the thumbs, fore finger and middle fingers are covered with heavy yellow hard calluses - which tells of the years of practice using the scissor.

  "I have used up several pairs of iron scissors because the key to cutting paper lies in mastering this instrument. For every satisfying image, I have experimented with hundreds of alternative versions before," Wang said.

  Late beginning

  The first title on Wang's name card is Senior Engineer of Tongji University, which is far from his paper cutting work, although his father was a famous paper-cutting artist.

  "When I was a child, I was interested in watching father cutting paper, but I hadn't thought I would follow his way one day," Wang recalled.

  His father, Wang Zigan, used to be the city's best paper cutting artist, who started cutting paper at the age of 13. His works used to be used as national gifts for foreign presidents in the 1960s, and on a couple of occasions he was invited to perform paper cutting in foreign countries. Now, the paper cutting artist's works are collected in the Shanghai Archive as extraordinary folk art works.

  Wang initially took a completely different path from his father. After labouring in the countryside for several years after graduating from high school, he went to university majoring in mechanical engineering. Since then, he has been teaching at Tongji University, where he achieved the status of senior engineer and took the position of vice dean.

  Since 1993, Wang's father's health condition degenerated badly due to cardiovascular disease, so at the age of 38, Wang started learning the folk art.

  "I suddenly realized that my father's excellent craft would disappear if no one could take it over. As the son of a folk artist, I should shoulder the responsibility to pass on this valuable piece of traditional cultural wealth, " Wang said.

  Besides his father's influence, Wang's love for Chinese folk art and the pursuit of beauty have been rooted in his heart and soul since his childhood.

  "When I was a child, the neighbours living in the same building were almost all among the top folk artists in Shanghai. One image carved deeply into my mind was seeing -under a desk lamp - an old porcelain carving artist working the porcelain into delicate pictures. The sound of the hammer striking the porcelain seemed to linger around the building during the silent night," said Wang.

  Wang has a lot of university work to do during the day, so the only spare time for him to cut paper is the evening, and it's common for him to stay up cutting until two or three o'clock in the morning.

  "He usually does nothing at home after work except cutting paper. Sometimes he spends the whole night trying to figure out a new image," said Wang's wife, "We all support him because this is what he is really interested in."

  "I am able to give up everything just to cut paper, because it's my life," said Wang. To leave more time for cutting paper, Wang has quit most of his work at the university. "So that I can fully devote myself to the creative pursuit of paper cutting."

  Wang had practised by himself at home for about ten year and his works won high recognition the first time he attended a national exhibition in Weihai of East China's Shandong's Province in 2001. "Everyone was curious about my paper works because I am a university teacher and unknown in the circle," said Wang.

  Since then Wang's works have won top prize at the Nanjing First Folk Art Festival and his work "Sparrows' Party on Wire" won the silver prize at the Beijing China Paper Cutting Art Show.

  'Fossil' comes alive

  Paper cutting is like a live fossil, among the oldest forms of Chinese traditional culture, with a recorded history of about 1,500 years.

  "Paper cutting should not be limited to the 'countryside flavour' or the traditional style, artists of today should innovate with new elements to change the art form into one that can be accepted by modern people," said Wang.

  In Wang's paper cutting works, one can find the style of traditional Chinese painting, such as the hill in the distance and a pine tree standing beside the a river. The composition of the picture is very simple while the inner meaning is far-reaching.

  Wang also explores colourful paper cutting, which means making full use of various colours in the paper when cutting it into different shapes. The colourful works have a much stronger visual impact then the more typical monochromatic works. For example, a green area can be cut into a tree, a black one becomes a singing bird and a small patch of red turns into the sun. "This requires very clever fabrication, and puts high demands on the scissor skill," said Wang.

  In Wang's reading room, about ten book shelves are occupy almost three walls of the room. These books cover topics such as literature, history, philosophy, fine arts, biography, traditional Chinese painting and folk arts, which are the rich soil from which Wang's paper cutting grows.

  "Reading is my life-long habit. Besides hard practice, cultural sedimentation is very important for artists," said Wang.

  As the director of the Folk Art Committee of the East-West Association of Artists of Nanjing University, Wang is willing to spread the seeds of folk art among students. He is also striving to build a folk art centre at the local university to popularize traditional Chinese arts among young people. "Even if they are majoring in science and technology, their young hearts need the nurture of arts and all beautiful things," said Wang.




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