Take a visit to the rural countryside in north China at the Spring Festival, and you are certainly to be impressed by the red color on the windows and doors of every household. It is the Chinese paper cuts.
Paper cutting is a popular Chinese folk art. In the past, every girl was expected to master it, and brides were often judged by their paper cutting skills. At festivals and other festive occasions like a wedding, the Chinese would decorate walls, windows, doors, columns, mirrors, lamps and lanterns in homes with paper cuts, or simply gave out paper cuts as gifts. Good luck is supposed to be with the household decorated with paper cuts.
Red is the most common color used, though not necessarily the exclusive one, as it is deemed a most auspicious color and easily associated with life (blood), vitality, prosperity, etc. in Chinese folk customs. Diverse designs are available, covering a wide range of subjects and themes. Many aspects of life such as prosperity, health, harvest, fertility, and successes are reflected in the designs. Usual images include dragons, phoenixes, fishes, flowers, children, Buddhas, etc. Some designs may also simply feature a certain Chinese character or an auspicious idiom, or illustrate a representative scene in a certain Chinese folk tale.
