Paper Cuttings (Paper Cuttings of Gaomi)

As an item included in UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List, the paper cuttings of Gaomi stands out from China's diverse skills of paper cuttings, and the paper cuttings artists are often invited to perform abroad, known as "Chinese magic scissors". With ingenious ideas, they are good at both relief cutting and intaglio cutting, and by creatively using black blocks and fine threads as well as serrated lines and smooth surfaces, produce standard but unconstrained patterns of paper cuttings. Combining roughness, elegance, simplicity and exquisiteness, it presents a concise but not monotonous style, an austere but delicate feeling, and a vivid artistic effect, with a "coarse yet fine epigraphy-like taste". Through diligence and creativity, Gaomi's inheritors of paper cuttings impressively showcase people's life emotions and ideals, symbolizing a poetic and dreamy life of the Gaomi people. In 2008, it was included in the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List.