| "Fairies from five paths"(Yanchuan, shaanxi) |
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| "A thousand piece net" for the worship of god: linking individual pieces from each household and hang it on the top of the shrine inside the temple. | Women from the Loess Plateau created a wide range of sophisticated paper-cut series featuring patron-saint and propagation-saint "Baby with coiled hair." When there was flood from continuous pouring rain, they had paper-cut "Sweeping wife" or "Sweeping mother" holding broom in one hand and a dust pin in the other to sweep away the clouds; during a time of drought, "Baby with coiled hair" was pasted with head down on the water vat to pray for rain; in case of sickness, "Spirit calling baby;" "Fairies from five paths," and "Sun flower seeds doll" in yellow paper were pasted on the lintel to drive away ghosts and vicious spirits. To pray for more children at wedding was to put out paper-cuts "Happy baby; Lotus flower baby;" and "Pomegranate baby," etc.
In Northeast area, propagation-saint in folk art works bear designated functional characteristics. Manchuria's "Wet-nurse saint" takes care of marriage of the sons in the family; "Tiger nurse saint" leads the way in mountain roads; Heilongjiang's "Jiqiya saint" helps with disease and disasters; and "Baby holding a magic grass in hand" in Xinjiang calls back human spirit.
Totem animal or legendary animal are often characterized by the geographical regions. Pasted on the doors in yellow glossy paper are local patron-saints varying from area to area, a deer or a rooster in Inner Mongolia; a tiger or "baby with coiled hair riding a tiger" in central China; a monkey or "baby with coiled hair riding a monkey, or riding a cow," in Henan, etc.
Along the Yellow River mid-stream, people congregate to worship. All the women in the village participate in making a-hundred-piece, or a-thousand-piece embroidery net. Each household makes one square piece of an animal figure or a plant, and then the whole village come together and makes them into one big lucky cross to hang on the top of the temple. |
