Liu’s Magic Paper Flower: Traditional Production Techniques and the Current Status of Intangible Cultural Heritage Transmission in the Yimeng Countryside

Abstract

Liu's Magic Paper Flower, this Chinese papercraft introduces unique paper flower patterns with techniques for folding and decoration, and tips for composition, color matching, floral vessels, and display: is a traditional handmade paper toy invented and passed down over centuries in Yimeng County in Shandong Province of the PRC. The production process involves more than twenty steps including pasting, carving, covering, and dyeing by handmade. The technique is a culminative generation of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) inheritors refining the operational process through extensive practice. The expectation of the craft and limited literacy, don’t be written records have been preserved. The valuable information and data for future investigations into the traditional production techniques of Liu's Magic Paper Flower to challenge preserving the intangible cultural heritage, the status quo of Liu's Magic Paper Flower warrants careful consideration. The main purposes were to examine the traditional producing techniques of Liu's Magic Paper Flower and assess its current transmission state. As an ICH project in Shandong Province, the transmission of Liu's Magic Paper Flower has departed from conventional familial inheritance models and embraced an innovative approach. These ICH Centers and rural cultural tourism facilitate knowledge dissemination and encourage participation and preservation of traditional culture as an ICH with the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills tools techniques that were invented, objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces associated with communities, and groups individuals recognize as part of their ICH indicate the approach effectively stimulates the revitalization of rural culture and economy while ensuring the safeguarding and continuity.