Ku Shulan, a native of Fucun Village in Chidao Township, Xunyi County, Shaanxi Province, was born in 1920. Her paper-cutting works have won the Grand Prize and Gold Award at the Chinese Folk Art Exhibition, and she has held art symposiums in Taiwan. Her representative works are collected in countries such as France, the United States, Germany, and Southeast Asia. In 1986, she was awarded the title of "Outstanding Chinese Folk Art Master" by UNESCO. The many crowns and honors seem to reflect the renewed brilliance and glory of traditional paper-cutting. But in fact, none of these have changed the fate of paper-cutting continuing to decline.
Ku Shulan's works still maintain the characteristics of folk art: they do not follow natural images but instead use conceptual forms, with simple yet vivid figures, intricate yet clear compositions, and strong yet moderate color contrasts. She is good at combining various images to highlight the main character, creating a strong sense of overall unity and rhythm. Through these romantic, optimistic, and fictional pictures, one can see the pure and kind heart and extraordinary artistic intelligence of the artist.
Among the farmers in northern Shaanxi who live by farming and pass their days year after year, paper-cutting used to be a very refined, artistic, and interesting activity. But now it's no longer the case. Traditional paper-cutting has been neglected and is hard to attract people's attention anymore. Ku Shulan cannot understand why this is happening. Facing strangers, she starts singing spontaneously: "The flower-cutting old woman is outside, having visited Beijing and Shanghai. With my flower-cutting old woman and my flower-cutting daughter, I can cut flowers. With my small pair of scissors, I cut flowers for the child. The child's flower-cutting looks really beautiful, cutting phoenixes playing with peonies, fish playing among lotus blossoms, and paintings, chess, books, and eight treasures. Here comes Ku Shulan, cutting flowers with sincerity and devotion." "Who is the flower-cutting mother? It's me, the flower-cutting mother. Without the flower-cutting mother, there would be no grand scene. If today's flower-cutting is good, I'm happy. If today's flower-cutting is bad, I won't eat for three or two days. If the flower-cutting is good, I eat steamed buns and drink cold water, feeling happy. When the night comes, the flower-cutting becomes difficult, so I sleep next to her bed. I always get up several times, look out the window, and when the moon sets, my heart feels troubled. I asked the flower-cutting old woman, 'What flower will you cut tomorrow?' The flower-cutting old woman said, 'I give my characters to you, Ku Shulan, because your reputation is too great.'
Looking at Ku Shulan, once a prominent figure now aged and faded, immersed in her self-created paper-cutting mythology, listening to her dream-like chants, one cannot help but feel sorrowful and moved by the decline of traditional paper-cutting art. The so-called "flower-cutting mother" that Ku Shulan repeatedly mentions and remembers is actually a fictitious mythological idol she created for herself.
On a warm spring day in 1937, the vast and silent yellow expanse of the Loess Plateau was beginning to show some green. Ku Shulan married into Fucun Village. In fact, the village on the Loess Plateau was not rich, and poverty followed her like a shadow. To pass the time, Ku Shulan began learning paper-cutting. Over the decades, she and other village girls and women cut paper by the cartload, but remained little known. Ten years ago, one day she accidentally fell down a cliff more than ten meters deep and lost consciousness. For several days and nights, she was unconscious. Her family started preparing for her funeral. Unexpectedly, one day she woke up, her mind confused, claiming to be the "flower-cutting mother."
From then on, Ku Shulan's paper-cutting seemed to be blessed by a divine power, changing completely from its previous style, with brilliant use of light and color, and the image of the flower-cutting mother frequently appearing in her work. Ku Shulan's fame quickly spread. This mythical story seems absurd, but almost everyone who knows Ku Shulan confirms it. The reasonable core of this absurd story can only be understood as Ku Shulan has regarded paper-cutting as a deity deep within her soul. She succeeded due to the divine assistance, and now she is sad because the divine power has been neglected by people. In the early summer of that year, Ku Shulan's paper-cutting was published in Taiwan. Looking at her own works, Ku Shulan sang again dreamily: "Green branches and leaves with peonies, I am so content here. Pick up golden lotus seeds, which chirp. Green branches and red leaves, the girl loves my pomegranate love. She calls me into the small room, and her face turns red." She said that after publishing the book, her heart felt as if it had been brushed by a chicken feather. Indeed, compared to paper-cutting, publishing a book with paper-cutting in this village was a major event. Ku Shulan said that many people who had previously criticized her paper-cutting came to see the book, and by publishing it, she naturally had no more faults. Looking at the book, Ku Shulan remembered the cave she once lived in, where paper-cuttings were pasted everywhere, including the flower-cutting mother and the deities in her heart. She returned to the cave she had lived in over ten years ago, and a feeling of loss filled her heart—past deities gone, current paper-cutting hopeless, sadness inside, and spiritual pain. The closing scene of the film "Flowing Years" featured the ancient, desolate, bold, and primitive songs of the Loess Plateau, making one feel as if they were on the Loess Plateau, surrounded by vast and endless views, eyes empty, emotions stirred, thoughts deepened; it also felt like suddenly returning to the depths of history, experiencing a sense of desolation, melancholy, and a heart-wrenching sorrow of watching traditional culture fade away.
