Traditional Chinese Paper Arts

China, where paper was invented in the 1st century AD, (Han Dynasty) has a long history of paper arts and crafts. These include paper objects used for decoration as well as items used for ceremonial purposes. Frequently, these would be made from paper money, either real or the ceremonial "hell money". These arts are very similar to the Japanese art of origami.

Click on the small thumbnail images see larger versions.
	MONEY BOAT. This model won Best in Show, LA County Fair, 1997 This is a traditional boat made from over one thousand modular units and measures about 18 inches in length. It was constructed by Carol Stevens, a Southern California teacher of Origami and other crafts. Carol learned this model from the Taiwanese grandmother of one of her students. Note that the bills used are not the gold or green .01 and .02 Yuan bills from the mainland, but are miniature replicas of U.S. dollars. The symbolic message remains the same however. It would perhaps be given to a person starting a new business to say, "May your golden ship come in!." It might also be presented as a Chinese New Year gift with a similar wish for prosperity in the new year.
	MONEY BOAT II. Another example of a traditional money boat, this one constructed by Raymond, proprietor of the Mandarin Island restaurant in Mission Hills, California.
	MONEY BOAT III. A magnificent example of a money boat. Here, Raymond exercises his creativity to produce a more realistic model of a chinese junk. This model measures about three feet long, and four feet tall. Raymond says that it required over 20,000 modular units and took about six months to make. Both of these models are on display at the Mandarin Island Restaraunt.
	PINEAPPLE. The pineapple is another traditional model usually constructed from the gold and green .01 and .02 Yuan bills. It requires 270 modules. Here Carol used regular origami paper to construct it. As a gift, the symbolic message would be, " May your venture grow and prosper!"
	SWAN The swan is a model that would probably not have been made from money. A pair might be used as decorations for a wedding. Swans are known to mate for life, and the pair of bowed white swan heads suggest an elderly white-haired couple. The symbolic message of white swans at a wedding might be, "May you have a long life together!" This model also by Carol Stevens.
	CHINESE .01 Yuan Bill. Traditionally, these bills were used to make modular units used to construct a wide variety of models. They are close to 2x1 rectangles and measure about 90mm x 42.5mm. The gold color symbolizes the gold of riches and a gift made from them would convey a wish of good fortune and prosperity to the recipient. The .02 Yuan bill was of a green color and also used to symbolize growth. Unfortunately, they are no longer in circulation.

This page consists of two parts. The first part focuses on Chinese money folds and other figures made from traditional modular units. A second part focuses on Chinese paper cutting, especially the intricate cutting of the brilliantly colored figures in the Wei Xian county style.The third button takes you to some examples of modern money folds as practiced in the West, and links to other paper art resources.

PAPER FOLDING WEI XIAN
PAPER CUTTING BOB's BILLFOLDS
Original Dollar Bill Origami

Chinese Modular Paper Folds

Click on the small thumbnail images see larger versions.

MONEY BOAT.
This model won Best in Show, LA County Fair, 1997

This is a traditional boat made from over one thousand modular units and measures about 18 inches in length. It was constructed by Carol Stevens, a Southern California teacher of Origami and other crafts. Carol learned this model from the Taiwanese grandmother of one of her students. Note that the bills used are not the gold or green .01 and .02 Yuan bills from the mainland, but are miniature replicas of U.S. dollars. The symbolic message remains the same however. It would perhaps be given to a person starting a new business to say, "May your golden ship come in!." It might also be presented as a Chinese New Year gift with a similar wish for prosperity in the new year.

MONEY BOAT II.

Another example of a traditional money boat, this one constructed by Raymond, proprietor of the Mandarin Island restaurant in Mission Hills, California.

MONEY BOAT III.

A magnificent example of a money boat. Here, Raymond exercises his creativity to produce a more realistic model of a chinese junk. This model measures about three feet long, and four feet tall. Raymond says that it required over 20,000 modular units and took about six months to make. Both of these models are on display at the Mandarin Island Restaraunt.

PINEAPPLE.

The pineapple is another traditional model usually constructed from the gold and green .01 and .02 Yuan bills. It requires 270 modules. Here Carol used regular origami paper to construct it. As a gift, the symbolic message would be, " May your venture grow and prosper!"

SWAN

The swan is a model that would probably not have been made from money. A pair might be used as decorations for a wedding. Swans are known to mate for life, and the pair of bowed white swan heads suggest an elderly white-haired couple. The symbolic message of white swans at a wedding might be, "May you have a long life together!" This model also by Carol Stevens.

CHINESE .01 Yuan Bill.

Traditionally, these bills were used to make modular units used to construct a wide variety of models. They are close to 2x1 rectangles and measure about 90mm x 42.5mm. The gold color symbolizes the gold of riches and a gift made from them would convey a wish of good fortune and prosperity to the recipient. The .02 Yuan bill was of a green color and also used to symbolize growth. Unfortunately, they are no longer in circulation.

Click here to download folding instructions in postscript format for the units.

Folding instructions for a swan can be obtained from The Origami Interest Group, maintained by Maartin Van Gelder in the Netherlands. Includes archives of the Origami Mailing List and downloadable diagrams of many kinds, both from the East and the West.

Look in the Diagrammed Models>Units>Chinese Refugees:Modular Units sub-directory for two files called, refugeeb.gif and refugeeb.txt. The refugeeb.gif file is in Chinese and uses the traditional characters used on the mainland. Refugeeb.txt is an english translation of the text.

Chinese Wei Xian Paper Cutting

Click on the small thumbnail images to see larger versions.

These figures are cut from very thin tissue paper. Note the cut out areas where the background shows through. The originals measure about 4x5 inches. The briliantly colored figures are hand colored and come from Wei Xian, a county about 200 miles from Beijing that is famous for this art. The single color scenic style is done throughout China. Other regions in China have their own special styles.

For more information on the various regional styles of Chinese paper cutting, goto the Chinese Folk Fine Arts Information System of China's Southeast University.

These figures might be displayed alone or used to decorate a wall hanging or other object. They might also be used as models and templates for the home artist to make other figures. To use them, one would make a rubbing of the template onto another piece of paper and cut it out with a very sharp knife. To make multi-colored figures such as these, one might first do woodblock printing onto the tissue paper, or assemble them from a mosaic of colored bits of paper.

The first three represent characters from Chinese Opera that would be familiar to most Chinese. The opera characters depict characters such as high officials who represent qualities such as justice, nobility or evil. The panda figures are intended for more "fun" projects, or might be used to decorate a child's room. The scenic style would probaly be used as decoration.

Acknowledgments:

Folded models by Carol Stevens of the West Coast Origami Guild. She can be reached at: paperart@hotmail.com.

Chinese money, Wei Xian cut figures and cultural context information provided by Dr. Hui Gong, a young exchange scholar from Beijing. She is currently at UCLA. She can be reached at: huigong@ucla.edu.

Cut scene provided by Dan Solkowitz, a teacher in L.A. City Schools.

Calligraphy by Dr. Frank M.F. Wu, also at UCLA.

Updated 9/25/99.


PAPER FOLDING	WEI XIAN PAPER CUTTING	BOB's BILLFOLDS Original Dollar Bill Origami