Fenghuang Paper-Framed Craft (Caizha)

Fenghuang caizha, or paper-framed craft, is a folk craft practised in Fenghuang County of Hunan, listed as code Ⅶ-66 and entering the second national ICH list in 2006 under traditional arts. The Fenghuang County Gazetteer records dozens of paper-craft shops in the late Qing and early Republic, scattered along Main Street, Hongqiao, East Street and the Cross Street, a long-standing trade.

The craftsman binds a bamboo-frame skeleton, pastes it in cotton paper and paints it in vivid colour, making lion and dragon heads, clam shells, festive boats, fish and crabs, clouds, flowers and lanterns for festivals and rites; the forms are boldly vivid and the colours strong, peaking each Spring Festival, She day and temple fair and sold across the county and beyond.

Fenghuang caizha carries the folk memory of western-Hunan festivals, rites and street life, an important sample for the study of Chinese folk art and paper craft; in 2025 its bearer Nie Dayong was named among the sixth batch of national ICH representative inheritors, a sign of the craft's living continuity.