Paper cutting is a folk culture with so long a history. When Chinese Lunar New Year is coming, it is a custom 【小题1】 northern people to paste the paper cutting on the window. Gradually, it develops into an art form, one of the 【小题2】(popular) traditional decoration arts. It is recorded that there were decorations made by gold and silver foil, leather and silk products in 1600 BC. We can say that paper cutting came from these art forms.

In the early time,people made images of humans and subjects by hemp paper(麻纸) 【小题3】(bury) together with the body in the tomb or to burn on the funerals(葬礼). With the special symbolization meaning, paper cutting 【小题4】(use) as decorations on sacrificing ceremonies. In 105AD, Cai Lun improved the paper making technique and 【小题5】 large amount of paper was produced, 【小题6】 laid a foundation for the spread of paper cutting. Beautiful patterns were created and gradually, the patterns were 【小题7】(wide) used in other fields later.

There were more records of paper cutting after 960 AD(Song dynasty). Professional paper cutting artists appeared, 【小题8】(specialize) in different patterns. Some were good at cutting flowers 【小题9】 others were expert at characters' cutting. Thus the patterns were abundant(丰富的) and colorful. One of the most important 【小题10】(contribution) of paper cutting in the Song dynasty was that patterns were used on the china.

When Zhang Lingshan was a child, she would watch the Chinese period drama Palace on television, attracted by the characters’ ancient clothing. She didn’t know what these beautiful clothes 【小题1】 (call)—only that they were from some 【小题2】 (distance) past. “They looked fairy-like, dreamy,” she said. “I was 【小题3】 (complete) drawn by the beauty of these clothes, and then eventually came to understand the culture of Hanfu, and I liked it more and more.”

Now aged nineteen and 【小题4】 (live) in Beijing, Zhang is 【小题5】 member of China’s growing “hanfu movement”—a renaissance (复兴) of the ancient clothing traditionally worn by ethnic-majority Han Chinese before the Qing dynasty. Tight-knit Hanfu communities and university clubs often meet for themed activities. Zhang and her friends sometimes visit places with ancient architecture, like Beijing’s Forbidden City, 【小题6】 emperors once lived, to take 【小题7】(photo) in costume and post them on social media. They have more than 20,000 fans who often ask them 【小题8】 more pictures.

Nowadays, Hanfu is seen as a way 【小题9】 (celebrate) Chinese culture and improve national self-esteem. In the past few years, Hanfu clubs and social media platforms 【小题10】 (help) to bring the Han clothing back under the spotlight. “It’s the confidence of the younger people, the confidence of the country,” said Christine Tsui, a fashion columnist and researcher in Shanghai.

China’s Explosive Artist

Cai Guoqiang’s practice spans from, gunpowder drawings to ephemeral sculptures and monumental installations, all of 【小题1】 are rich with references to Chinese history, Taoist cosmology and current political events. Cai deals with the latter in a spectacular installation for I Want to Believe, his 2008 retrospective in New York, from the centre of the Guggenheim rotunda the artist—a 【小题2】 (train) set designer, by the way—suspended Inopportune: Stage One (2004), consisting of a series of nine cars 【小题3】 (hover) in mid air to represent in cinematic progression the effect of a car bomb.

Since the 1980s, Cai has been working on drawings realized by 【小题4】 (ignite) explosive powder on large sheets of paper. These works possess an aura 【小题5】 evokes both the vivid gestures of abstract expressionism and the quieter surfaces of Chinese traditional painting. Gunpowder is also at the centre of a series of environmental works, begun in 1989, 【小题6】 combine the tradition of Land Art with 【小题7】 of Chinese fireworks. For his explosion events, Cai stages pyrotechnical choreographies that sketch temporary drawing space.

Cai’s 【小题8】 (participate) in many international events, imposes himself as one of the strongest in the sky. These events are also meant to act as social, festive collective experiences that the artist—not without irony—believes could be perceived even from outer artists to emerge from China. At the Venice Biennale 1999 he 【小题9】 (award) the Golden Lion far Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard (1999), a series of unfired clay sculptures 【小题10】 organized the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.