Chinese Handicrafts --- Paper Craft

Papercut is an art form originally created in China. Around the first century AD, the Chinese invented the most flexible, versatile and adaptable of materials --paper. The first papercut can be traced back to the period known as the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-581 AD). In the T'ang Dynasty (618-906 AD), papercuts are the subject of a poem by the poet Ts'ui Tao-yung and from other sources of this period. They are described as being used to decorate plants and worn by ladies in their hair in the form of butterflies and flowers.