No Chinese New Year is complete without paper cuttings and Spring Festival poetry couplets. We meet an artist who has embraced China’s move to a two-child policy, and also villagers running a cottage industry.
Renowned Chinese paper-cutting artist Qi Xiuhua, whose works have even been depicted on postage stamps, is preparing to welcome the New Year of the Monkey.
“Among the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, Monkey is the smartest and most nimble. I want to show that through my paper-cutting,” Qi said.
“The two-child policy this year inspired me. So I designed this pattern: a monkey holding a completely filled pomegranate, which means a multi-child family.”
Meanwhile, in Dongli Village in Gaomi, they are busy preparing Spring Festival couplets. Almost every family runs a workshop there, and villagers have sold thousands of tons of couplets all over China.