Paper in Chinese folk culture
Invented in the second century BCE, paper has been part of life and culture in China for over three times as long as in Europe. One consequence has been its application to a huge variety of practical purposes. Some of the most basic, such as wrapping food in paper (perhaps amongst the earliest applications), were adopted quickly in Europe as well. Toilet paper was in use by the sixth century CE and was being manufactured in huge quantities by the early fourteenth.
More decorative uses of paper remain strongly associated with Asian culture even today, such as using paper to fabricate kites, lanterns, fans, parasols, and folding screens.
Floating lanterns made of rice paper on a bamboo frame have been used in China since ancient times not merely for entertainment but for military purposes: in China they are known as Kongming lanterns, after a general who used them to signal an alarm when surrounded by enemy troops.
Kites were also devised in ancient times for military purposes, originally made of light-weight fabric. During the Tang dynasty (CE 618-907), lighter kites made of bamboo and paper appeared, leading to the development of kite making as an art form during the Ming (CE 1368-1644) and Qing (CE 1644-1911) dynasties: kites took on the form of birds, flowers, dragons, and calligraphy, vying with one another for acrobatic agility as well as beauty.
The similar case of fans made of silk or paper illustrates the manner in which practical utility of this kind can produce objects of great sophistication and rich tradition as well.
Practical utility has naturally shaded off into decorative arts. A purely decorative folk art long practiced in China is the elaborate paper cutting which is celebrated in its own museum and acknowledged by UNESCO as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humankind. On the same UNESCO list is the ancient tradition of shadow puppetry, which used leather as well as paper, and spread from China to other East Asian cultures as well.
According to UNESCO, “Chinese shadow puppetry is a form of theatre acted by colourful silhouette figures made from leather or paper, accompanied by music and singing.” Individual puppets can have as many as 24 moveable joints; a large troupe can have seven to nine performers, and each performer can simultaneously manipulate several puppets using rods, to “create the illusion of moving images on a translucent cloth screen illuminated from behind.”
Shadow puppetry has been practiced in China for over two thousand years: introduced in the Han dynasty, it is virtually as old as paper itself. Yet without a close equivalent in the West, Chinese shadow puppetry is vulnerable to being dismissed as a mere folk art. Based on projecting light from behind a translucent fabric screen, it can be regarded as an ancient antecedent to cinema. Even more plausibly, it qualifies as the most captivating form of animation available anywhere before the latter nineteenth century, and retains the capacity to mesmerise audiences even today. The BBC podcast in External links describes a related tradition in South-East Asia.
Credit: Howard Hotson (April 2019)