Known as the“hometown of Chinese folk art”,“hometown of calligraphy and painting” and“hometown of playlet”, Linqu County is culturally competent with its deep cultural foundation and rich cultural heritage.

As one of China’s oldest folk arts, paper-cutting gives a visual sense of hollowing out and artistic enjoyment. There are a group of deft paper-cutting artists in Beiyangshan Village of Linqu who can use paper cuts to depict the traditional culture and tell modern stories. They give new life to the ancient form of art.

The paper-cutting artists use scissors instead of a pen to skillfully cut paper into novel and delicate works amid the falling paper scraps within a few minutes.

Chinese New Year painting is a folk art representing the Chinese nation’s wish for good luck and greetings for the new year. It is a painting genre specific to China. Originating from Yangjiabu New Year woodblock painting, Linqu New Year painting integrates different painting forms, including folk fabric art, sculpture and stone carving, to seek new developments until it forms an art style of its own.

Cui Yanhong was born after the 1980s. As an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of hand-painted New Year paintings, she has been fond of painting since childhood. Her typical day is spent at a table with a paintbrush to paint a painting. She has devoted herself to the New Year painting technique for more than 10 years.

As culture flourishes in this prosperous age, Linqu’s hand-painted New Year painting is ushering in another boom, and the art has become a unique cultural label of Linqu.