Paper cuts (jianzhi)
There are paper cuts to be bought at every street corner in Pingyao, but
watch out.
"A lot of the paper cuts you see around the shops are really just
the traditional favorites for tourists, not the ones with local Pingyao
character," says Wen Tao, a paper cut artist.
"Our Pingyao paper cuts feature things like wedding blessings and
people working in the fields. 'Real' Pingyao paper cuts often feature
local Pingyao buildings such as the Rishengchang Bank and the county government
building."
"Pingyao paper cuts combine scissors and knife.The patterns are traditional
and amended slightly through many years of practice," says Zhen Xiaohai,
grandson of Li Xiuying, 84, the owner of Pingyao Li Xiuying Family Paper
Cut Garden.
Paper cuts come in two types: One is purely decorative for windows, walls,
ceilings, door lintels and lanterns. Pingyao people go a bit bonkers with
the other type: Embroidery for cuffs, sleeves, aprons, shoes, pillows,
hats and yes, undergarments.
Patterns usually include Chinese homonym blessings like bats, for example.
In Chinese the word for bat is "fu" But "fu"also means
good fortune.
What makes Pingyao special is the people, more specifically its craftspeople.
This is a place where arts have been allowed to flourish and where crafts
have evolved beyond their big city cousins available at the Friendship
Store.
A good example is Pingyao miniature drama. Tiny stages displaying various
scenes from different dramas and operas are housed in a museum, prompting
a local passion for opera masks.
At first glance, those faces look familiar, but there's something a bit
more, well, savage about the faces you see in Pingyao.
"I design all the village opera masks myself. Village opera has a
history of more than 1,000 years," says Gong Jiulun, 65, retired
art teacher. "Whereas Peking Opera has a history of only a few hundred
years.
The Peking Opera masks are what you might call more refined, subtler versions
of the masks from village operas. I like the village opera faces: they
are wilder, closer to nature." Gong's unpretentious little store
on the quieter side of town teems with fierce faces: "I might be
the only person painting on real gourds in northern China," he says.
Jingju shehuo lianpu
Add: 36 Dong Dajie
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