Saturday, March 03, 2007

Paper Cuts

I really like the paper cuts that Malaysia Site has at the start of their description for each zodiac description, like The Sign of the Rat, and Sign of the Dragon. You can see the animal, and you may be able to see the Chinese character in the papercut. Use their sidebar to get to the signs for other years and see those animal designs.

At least two 2 children's books use papercuts well. Papercuts illustrate and are central to Laolao of Dragon Mountain by Margaret Bateson-Hill et. al (sadly, too long to read to most groups). The most beautiful papercut illustrations I have seen are in Eric Kimmel's Rooster's Antlers: A Story of the Chinese Zodiac.

For a different kind of papercut, check out this Spring Paper Cut Project for the character "Spring".

Chinese papercut background for teachers is on page 6 of Brushstrokes From West to East.

For more information, see Wikipedia's Chinese Paper Art entry.

last updated: June 2007

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