Chinese exhibition today

Islamabad: China Culture Centre here in federal capital would organise an exhibition of China Paper Cutting on the occasion of week-long China Cultural Heritage Week to be inaugurated today (Friday).

The art of paper-cutting in China may date back to the second century, since paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China.  As paper became more affordable, paper-cutting became one of the most important types of Chinese folk art.

Later, this art form spread to other parts of the world, with different regions adopting their own cultural styles.  Because the cut-outs are often used to decorate doors and windows, they are sometimes referred to as chuang hua, window flowers or window paper-cuts. During the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368 - 1912), this artistry witnessed its most prosperous period. For over a thousand years, people (mainly women) have been making paper-cuts as part a leisure activity. They created different type of paper-cutting and shared and passed this traditional craftsmanship to their children, so that this traditional art style became more and more popular and is still practiced to this day.

Paper-cutting was used to decorate doors, windows and walls to show happiness and festival. An official of China Embassy said that China Cultural Heritage week was a global event organized by the Ministry of Culture of Chinese government in nearly 30 China Cultural Centres all over the world.