The Wei County Papercuts： A way of living in the post—Intangible Cultural Heritage era.

賀小云

【Abstract】Like products of most intangible cultural heritages， the market of papercuts flourishes in China， following it made world heritage in 2006. This has it clearly reflect on the papercuts business in Wei County. However， as the intangible-cultural-heritage effect faded away and be influenced by social atmosphere， its mode of existence which mainly relies on tourism and commercial affairs has fell into bottleneck in its way.

【Key words】Papercut； Development； Market crisis

The village of Dongxiaguan in the Wei County， Hebei province， has always been enjoying quietness， with single-storied houses built with red bricks standing on the ground. An old man， with his bent carriage， is putting fire woods in order， each pedestrian that passes by him will catch his attention. It is as if you have stepped into a village of 1980s， if there is not a car being pulled over.

Liu Jianfengs home is located at the entrance of this village. The house， built with bricks and stones， consists three rooms and the middle one is a little narrower than the other two. His diseased mother is living in the middle room， while Liu， together with his wife and 2-year-old son living in the east bedroom. This young man， born in 1984， started to study the skills to make papercuts when graduated from junior middle school， and 15 years have inevitably passed since then.

As he concluded， papercuts have been experiencing three-year depression after years of prosperity. From 2014， his business became bleak following the market fluctuations. As his son grows， living pressure increases suddenly. He had to close his own business and became a worker of a famous company， which is called“ Jianzhihou”.

Just as most of products of intangible cultural heritages in China， papercuts market takes a dramatic increase after getting this honor. However， as the intangible-cultural-heritage effect faded away and be influenced by social atmosphere， its mode of existence which mainly relies on tourism and commercial affairs has fell into bottleneck in its way.

But such problems do not only exist in papercuts market.

Papercuts of searching for honors

On April 10， 2015， the third day of working in “Jianzhihou”， Liu departed from home a little later than the former days， because his son did not want him to leave， crying loudly.

It is 20 minutes walk between the village he lives in and the place that he works in. He commutes between those two sits by electromobile.

It is better to describe the Wei County papercuts as knife carving more than paper-cutting. With arms on the workbench， Liu is carving theatrical masks. The carving knife was put vertically on a bounded pile of 50-sheet Xuan papers， each of which was 15 centimeters in length and 8 centimeters in width. The way of grabbing carving knife is exactly the same as holding a writing brush. He holds the knife vertically and carves on the bounded pile of Xuan papers along the lines that have been drew previously.

Lius working area， which is about 300 square meters， on the second floor， there are about 10 workers like him， and the other 10 workers responsible for dyeing papers. On the third floor is about 100-square-meter working space for mounting workers.

The brand “Jianzhihou” is registered by Chen Lin in 2010. In 2014， he relocated it from Zhangjiakou to the Papercuts Street of Nanzhang village， which is about 1 KM from the urban area of Wei County. Because this street is the most representative place in terms of Wei County papercuts.

In 1999， Chen Lin， from Hubei province， rented a house where he started his first shop. More than 600，000 yuan that he earned from clothing business were invested in it.

He pointed out that there were no factory outlet stores at that time， but he wanted to popularize papercuts in a better way. So he participated in exhibitions if there was any， and besides， he also held some. However， the main way， as he said， still lie in selling from one potential buyers to another.

In the year 2000， Chen Lin opened his first factory outlet store in Zhangjiakou， Hebei province. “Jianzhihou” is registered in 2010， means “papercuts of searching for honors”

Like products of most intangible cultural heritages， the market of paper cuts flourishes in China， following it made world heritage in 2006. This has it clearly reflect on the papercuts business in Wei County.

Zhang Weibo， the general director of Culture， Radio and Television Bureau in Wei County， told our journalists， “After papercuts being made world heritage， the industry of paper cutting accumulate rapidly， plenty of papercuts-products-specialized villages appeared， such as Nanzhang village.” By 2010， Wei County formed the Wei County industrial park， including the Wei County Papercuts Museum， the First Papercuts Street， the First Papercuts Village of China （the Nanzhang village）， the Wei County papercuts school and other projects. Besides， other specialized industries， such as marketing， mounting as well as designing， grow fastly too.

In the golden age of papercuts industry， Chen Lin embraces 8 factory outlet stores and 15 chain stores in several cities， such as Xiaogan， Hubei province.

Suffering from deficit every month

Although Nanzhang village is not quite large， only has 300 residents， the papercuts street still attracts almost all the attentions of the whole village.

In ordinary days， few tourists come here. Most of stores on the street are kept by papercutting workers or the owners themselves.

At the end of the street stands the Jiaos Paper-cut Company Ltd， which is established in 1992. The quadrangle-styled company contains some empty yards. Looking into the company from outside of the window， we found the large working areas are empty too.

The father of Jiao brothers is the apprentice of Zhou Yongming， who is a papercuts artist of Wei County； the three Jiao Brothers are the disciple of Mr.zhou. “More than 20 workers should have been working here； they are on holiday right now. Because few clients have booked our products recently， and under the influence of market depression， we have stocked too many.” Said the eldest one， Jiao Xinbin.

The Jiaos Company is one of the earliest companies which to spread papercutting products outside in Wei County. In the 1980s and 1990s， Jiao Xinbin began to promote here and there， with a large number of papercutting products in bags. Usually， he cooperates with tourism produts stores， and gradually those stores become his regular corporate clients.

“Thousands of sets of papercutting products would be ordered within a month at that time， and the returns of one month could keep the companys funds for almost all year round.” Jiao told our journalists.

The Jiaos Company only serves as a goods supplier； they have no stores， factory outlet stores or chain stores. Jiao told us that as a form of handicraft， the Wei county papercuts are far from rich in contents.

Although Jianzhihou is keeping running， Chen is as anxious as other owners of papercutting stores. Because his company has also been influenced by the market crisis since 2014.

In the last two years， he gradually closed two shops on the Papercuts Street of Wei County， keeping only one shop. By the end of 2014， 15 chain stores have almost closed. Even though some of them are still keeping running， they have already stopped picking up goods from his company， which means they have no connections with Jianzhihou.

Now， they still have 5 factory outlet stores in Zhangjiakou， being looked after by his eldest daughter. Chenlin said openly： “We have been suffering from deficits， and if I did not buy the houses at the beginning， those stores must have been closed now. But if the cost of the houses is taken into account， we have a great deficit every month”.

As for Liu Jianfeng， he has been working at his own home， relying on his handcraft of paper cutting， with an average income of 4000 yuan per month all those years. However， this ended in 2013. He had to work in Papercuts Company since the market turned gloomy.

Zhang Weibo told us， the economy downturn of culture industry in 2014 is an overall effect， and was caused by various reasons.

Especially following “the eight rules” by the CPC central committee， the ordering of presents is restricted in associations among governments. Since the Wei County as a state poverty county， “government has implemented some measures to support enterprises， helping them to raise money and make loans. Besides， it also helps to promote papercuts products when communicating with other cities. However， most of them are in form of policy and governments with limited financial resources cannot take too much help for those enterprises”， he explained.

Business in Scenic Area

Jiao Xinbin， whose company only supply papercut products， desperately looks forward to the May Day. Because large amount of tourists will arrive at Nanzhang village， which will definitely do good to his business. When it comes to Chen Lin， He still wants to run factory outlet stores or chain stores to expand market of his products.

On October 1st， 2014， a factory outlet store of Jianzhihou opened in Dajingmen Scenic Area. Dajingmen as a famous gateway of the Great Wall， is developed and repaired completely by Zhangjiakou government in 2014， it has become one of the landmarks of the city.

Li Xinzhi is the worker of this outlet store， at noon only she looked after this 2-story store of 400 square meters. Driver Liu of Jianzhihou from Wei County just brings more than 200 papercut products. Those products include zodiacs papercuts which are 15 centimeters in length and 12 centimeters in width， big landscape papercuts and portrait papercuts.

In order to gather people and create commercial atmosphere quickly， the government of Zhangjiakou decided to deliver the business district to sellers for free. It is Saturday on April 11th； many people visited Dajingmen， bustling with people. Now and then， tourists come into the shop and just have a quick glance at papercut products. “It is gloomy， few products are sold each day. Maybe the business will get better as it is getting warmer day by day. No central heating in winter， no tourists would like to stop by”， Li Xinzhi told us.

Just as Jiao Xinbin， Li is expecting the next minor vacation. As she said， the sales volume reaches to tens of thousands yuan in that several days of the Spring Festival.

Many sellers on the market take machine-made papercuts off artificial ones， which has caused great impact on stores on the Papercuts Street as well as that on scenic sites.

Chen Lin said he develop the papercuts of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in 2002. A fine papercut of that requires at least half a year from carving to mounting if one worker do it alone， and two months are needed if three workers together. But machine-made one of it will be finished only in several days.

However， artificial papercuts of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival and the machine-made one respectively cost 2，500 yuan and 300 yuan.

Chen Lin mystically takes out a folded paper like polygon， a little yellow by age. This is the criterion of papercuts that he makes. But he have not finished yet.

For example， he divided his papercut into six parts， including size， figure， density and precision of craft， techniques etc. Take technique as an example， it can be further divided into face carving， head wearing and other details.

He is unwilling to show his price standards of his un-finished papercut products. But he points out that the problems existed in price standards need solving.

Stepping into any stores on the Papercuts Street， you will be showed around. Sellers will generally point machine-made papercuts out from various papercuts in stores. They will also show you how to distinguish between machine-made papercuts and artificial ones.

All sellers have mentioned that on small-sized papercuts， theres little difference between the cost of machine-made one and that of artificial one. The larger the size is， the bigger the cost is， which will take impact on the artificial papercuts easily.

In April， Zhangjiakou is still in the chilly spring air， and the Wei County， with low rate of urban greening， seems even cold. At nightfall， as workers leave gradually， the whole working area on the second floor turns dim except for Liu Jianfengs workbench. He is keeping carving hollow figures on the facial masks in operas with desk lamp on.

“This is a facial mask of Li Kui.” Liu Jianfeng finished the last hollow； he put those carving knives away and nailed the edges of those 50 sheets of carved paper. Totally， it took him five hours to carve the mask. And those carved papers will be collected to be dyed tomorrow.

Procedures for preparing carving knife：

1. Bound the carving knife around with coils of hemp strings；

2. File the carving knife；

3. Sharpen the carving knife；

4. Heat the carving knife with fire， and then place it in cold water immediately；

5. Wrist protection；

6. Put the carving knife in or on hair to get some oil.

*原文出自《瞭望周刊》記者渠魁By“Oriental Outlook” Qu Kui。