Explore The Graphic Connotation And Application Of The Zhaji Doll In Longdong Paper-cutting

Zhuaji Moppet,a traditional design pattern prevailing in Eastern Gansu on the Loess Plateau,is considered as the patron saint of the folk art.The research conducted by Guo Moruo indicates that the image,the moppet facing the front in half-squat or frog-shaped posture with legs splayed slightly outward,with two hair-knots each of which is at times decorated with a chicken on the head,and a chicken,a rabbit or sometimes a fish in each of the raised hands,is modeled on the family coat-of-arms of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan,the first ancestor of Chinese nation.Zhuaji Moppet,the representative of the moppet series of paper-cut works in Eastern Gansu,resembles the Chinese character "heaven" in inscriptions on ancient bronze objects and has a lot of variants and names.Some of them have only two hair-knots while others have a chicken on each of the knots on the head;some have a bird or a chicken while others take a chicken,a rabbit or a fish in the raised hands.They are usually posted on the doors at Spring Festival as symbols to bring happiness and wealth to the family and to protect the household from evil.Zhuajie Moppet,usually combined with the Chinese character "double happiness" and some designs of flowering plants and used as a decoration at weddings,expresses the desire for getting pregnant and giving birth;Lady Saoqing,a woman with a whisk broom in her hand,reflects the wish for fine days in an unbroken spell of wet weather;Liaogan Moppet,a paper-cut kid which is burned with some dried stalks and weeds on the evening of the 23rd of the first lunar month,represents the hope for health and safety;and Zhuaqian Moppet,with coins in two hands,implies the aspiration for good wealth.All of these variants substantially refer to reproduction.Zhuaji Moppet is actually the symbol that indicates the theosophical communication between the witch and the deity.This thesis,taking literature analysis,empirical investigation and graphic symbol study as its dominant research methods,includes five chapters.It firstly focuses on the history and the background of Zhuaji Moppet through exploring the origin,the prototype and the circulation areas of the object in said.Then it brings in the idea that the Moppet embodies primitive religious worship and witchery culture and that this custom responses to the changes of concepts of worship in human society.It also gives a detailed analysis on the esthetic senses of the phenomenon that this custom fuses with other cultures and sums up the roles that the Moppet plays in the present social mores.Finally it discusses the features of different images such as frogs,chickens,and lotuses and their metaphors relevant to the cultures that they contain.The main body of the thesis focuses on the history of the design pattern of Zhuaji Moppet and its application in the new media.Comrade Xi Jinping once said that culture is the soul of a country and a nation.Without high cultural confidence,there is no prosperity of our culture or great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.From the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War researchers such as Jin Zhilin,Gu Yuan and Xia Feng have done a lot of exploration and investigation on the folk art in Northeastern China and made Zhuaji Moppet,a simple and clumsy primitive image,gradually known the world,and this image is now regarded as the representative of the folk art in Eastern Gansu.However,the social rapid progress has brought Eastern China,an area with poor transportation and less communication in the past,great changes which rocked the once closed living environment.These changes have consequently become the negative factors to the protection and inheritance of the traditional folk art.This thesis,based on the demand of theoretic studies on folk design patterns and the current situation of the loss of the traditional folk custom,initiates a systematic research on the image,which provides some help not only in the theoretical construction but also in the practical guidance.It can be said that cultural self-confidence is a trust and a belief.We have to not only stick to this belief but also keep up with the advancement and the cohesion of this belief,and try to get independent in the cacophony of different ideas.With the renaissance and the development of the folk culture at home and abroad,China will pay more attention not only to the speed of its development but also to the coexistence of getting business interests of its folk culture and showing characteristics of Chinese culture.