A craft cut out for the artist

Spark of inspiration

Liaoliao started telling me those figures' origin. Long before she ever began paper-cutting, there was a time in her early 20s when she would sketch on tiny paint boxes.

"Back then, I felt lost and was in pain, so I drew small, colorless figures curled up alone, hugging their knees, everywhere. Sometimes they were happy and sometimes they were crying. And the crying figures looked very real. They had no color because they were hollow inside, hopeless," she said.

Around 2008, she hardly went out, living in a reversed day-night cycle, passing long nights with nothing to do. One day, with paper and scissors in hand, she folded and cut the paper much like she did in childhood. When she unfolded it, that small surprise lit a spark.

"Compared to other forms of expression, I appreciate its cleanliness and purity, enjoying the decisiveness and choices made with each cut," she said.

In 2012, she had these figures stand up.

"They are my buddies," she said, pointing at them. "Initially, it was just me, all alone. But then, one by one, I started making friends — little buddies to hold hands with. It's like I finally found a way to connect with the world. Paper-cutting is my way to connect with the world."

Outside the dark room, visitors could see Liaoliao's other early works, including those inspired by the classic tale of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

In the finely cut details of Alice series, one could see the smiling face of the Cheshire Cat, the freckles on the face of the caterpillar, the evil-eyed Queen of Hearts playing croquet holding in her hands a flamingo that shuts its eyes tightly, ghostlike rabbits, piled teapots, as well as countless plants and other elements from the story. Alice always wore black circles around the eyes.

"That's because I always stayed up late back then," she said, smiling.

Raised in Chongqing, Liaoliao, once timid and self-doubting, grappled with parental critiques on her looks, which made her doubt her own abilities.

At 16, before graduating from senior middle school, she became so rebellious that she decided to quit school and went to Ukraine to study Russian and oil painting.

One year later, without learning much, she returned to China, started fumbling on the way of art creation, until coming across paper-cutting.

Over the years, China Post, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and BBC among others have become her clients. She also did the paper-cut illustrations for 14 books by Cao Wenxuan, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016.