Lü Shengzhong

Lu published a book in 2005 entitled The Book of Humanities, where he discusses as well as displays his past and present works. The book also employs Lu's three elements behind paper cutting along with his philosophy towards his artwork in several volumes. Some of the books collage pages were scraps from actual pieces that Lu Shengzhong created. The collages in the book are of little red figures such as frog, paper people, and other various shapes.

In 1988, Lü had his very first exhibition at China's National Art Gallery. He turned the art gallery into a "temple filled with totem-like images", by using cutouts of footprints that were suspended in mid air, as well as silhouette patterns accompanied by illegible calligraphy. Lu's display at China's National Art Gallery caught the attention of local art critics, but Lu Shengzhong felt no sense of glory as he described his art as “a lonely struggle along a desolate path.” Lu later wrote a more detailed description stating:

Within Lu Shengzhong's early career as an emerging artist, he has entered many solo and group exhibitions between the late 1980s and mid 1990s including:

As Lü got older, his fascination for paper cutting began to fade. As a young adult he joined the army for a short while. After the army, he worked for a short period of time as a film projectionist. In the mid 1970s he attended art school at Shandong Normal University, and graduated in 1978 with a degree in Fine Arts. After graduation he later attended Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing for his masters program in the early 1980s. During this time period, China's art scene began a change from socialist realist paintings. His classmates began to discover rock & roll music, blue jeans, jazz, as well as the art genre of Dada. Lu Shengzhong graduated from Central Academy of Fine Art in 1987, with a masters in folk art.

Lü Shengzhong (Chinese: 吕胜中; born 1952) is a Chinese artist who specializes in the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting. He came of age during the turbulent Cultural Revolution. When China started to open up following the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, Lu Shengzhong turned to traditional Chinese folk arts, unlike his contemporaries who embraced contemporary art forms practiced in the West, such as installation art, oil paintings and performance art. "I walked away from the cultural confusion of the time and turned back to traditional folk art," he says.

Lü was born in the Dayuji village in Shandong, China, in 1952. Shandong has long been known for its paper cutting art culture. Lu's father was a farmer where his mother was a house-wife, who was well known around the village for her paper cutting talents. As a child, Lu fell in love with the way his mother would create art with cut scraps of paper.