The history of papercraft
1.Introduction to papercraft
Papier mâché culture, also known as papercraft, is one of the folk arts with a long history in Chinese culture. It is a three-dimensional plastic art with appreciation function in the category of traditional folk art of our country. As part of the folk festival culture, it is admired and loved by people for its rich in color and a variety of practical functions. In the past, it is commonly used in praying and worship rituals, whereas it is dedicated to be used in funerals nowadays.
2.A brief history of papercraft
The historical origin of traditional papercraft can be traced back to Tang Dynasty or Han Dynasty. The earliest papercraft entity is a paper coffin discovered in 1973 at Astana Ancient Tombs in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. After that, records regarding papercraft can also be found in the historical books from Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty.
The earliest sacrificial objects may be living humans and animals. During the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States in Chinese history, people realized that this behavior was too cruel, and it was gradually abolished. They started to use wooden puppets instead, and the practice gradually evolved to involve figurines and vessels, which are collectively called as “Ming Chi” (literally translated as “Ming artifact”).
As filial piety became prevalent, folks began to value worship rituals and sacrificial objects. In addition, after the invention of papermaking techniques and the mature of papercraft techniques, Ming Chi has become an indispensable part of worship rituals since Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing Dynasty.
Explanatory notes: “Ming Chi” refers to “artifacts used in the underworld,” which are the sacrificial objects ancient people brought to bury with them. It is also known as “underworld artifacts.” Since people in Han Dynasty believed that the afterlife would be the same as the life when they were still living, in order to enhance the quality of living of the deceased, Ming Chi that resembles daily necessities were gradually created.
3.The origin of burning papercraft In his book Taiwanese Folk Arts, the late artist Shiy De Jinn indicates that “burning paper figures” may be a practice evolved from ancient Chinese customs. It is the transformed version of sacrificial “figurines” used in ancient times. After the widespread use of paper in Tang Dynasty, papercraft replaced Ming Chi such as pottery figurines and passed on. Among the papier mâché shops in Taiwan, there is a prevalent tale: It is told that when Tang emperor Li Shimin traveled the underworld, he saw that some ghosts were able to live in beautiful and comfortable buildings, while many wandering ghosts without people worshiping them had no place to live and no accessible money in the underworld. After returning to the world of the living, he advocated to build some “paper house for the deceased” to be burned after people had passed away, enabling the deceased to settle down in the other world with money to access. The custom of burning paper houses and ghost money was therefore passed on.
Since it is not easy to be supported by historical records, it is difficult to verify the authentic origin of burning paper figures and paper houses. However, based on the funeral customs in the life etiquette of traditional Han culture, it is understandable that common people are no able to afford a substantial amount of pottery figures as their sacrificial objects, so they use paper figurines instead. As for burning instead of burying, it is a traditional method use to transmit objects from this world (the world of the living) to the other world (the underworld, heaven). Regardless of its use, such as worshiping gods or functioning in the funerals, the application of papercraft artifacts represents the religious beliefs of soul worship in folk traditions.
After papercraft spread to Taiwan, the rapid economic development and industrialization allow people to spend a considerable amount of money on luxurious papercraft artifacts for their ancestors, fostering the competition and growth among artisans. It was the heyday of papercraft in Taiwan. During the 85 to 90 year of ROC era, the papier mâché industry reached is peak. Many papier mâché shops are established around busy temples.
However, as modern people no longer value ghost, gods and folk custom, under the trend of dispensing all unnecessary formalities, the mysterious and unlucky papercraft art are less and less valued. One papier mâché shops closed or moved after another due to the burden of rising rents.
Beside this, it is also a big problem that nobody can take over the traditional papercraft techniques. The subsistence of traditional paper craft techniques relies on the inheritance inside families. The fact that most young people are leaving their hometowns and are not willing to inherit the family business and pass on papercraft is a major reason that papercraft techniques are gradually losing. As the time advances, the technology develops and paper artifacts improve, it is an important concept to recreate the new culture of papercraft arts while preserving the good traditional ideas when passing on the techniques.
