Sharing another postcard from China! This is a piece of artwork created by Fan Zuoxin titled “The Rat with Happiness”. If I’m not mistaken (and well a lot of the times I am, but that’s beside the point right now…), this is an outline of a paper-cut. No, I don’t mean those hellish lacerations one gets on their finger that get itchy after some time; I mean a paper-cut as in a product of papercutting, which is a form of art that involves cutting out sections of a paper to create something. So for example, if this piece were to be in a paper-cut format, all those white areas would be hollow, leaving only the red outline. Paper-cut art has been a thing in China since the 6th century, and it is known as jianzi. Red is the color that’s most often used for these paper-cuts as it represents good luck and prosperity, and one of the most common subjects for them are the zodiac animals. In this case, it’s the rat! Which is kinda interesting because 2020 is the year of the rat (and I did a post about it some months ago!) Thank you lots for sending me this cool postcard!
