Wang Zigan

In 2010 Wang's son brought Shanghai Zhending Chicken Development Industry Co to court for using his father's artwork on its registered trademark without approval. The local Chinese fast food restaurant was ordered to pay 80,000 yuan (US$12,640) to Wang's children for plagiarizing his rooster papercut design.

In November 1993, Wang Zigan had a stroke due to infarction arteriosclerosis and was confined to bed for seven years. He died on 16 February 2000.

Wang initially took a completely different path than that of his father. After labouring in the countryside for several years after graduating from high school, he went to Tongji University, majoring in mechanical engineering. He has been teaching at Tongji University ever since he graduated, and he is now a senior engineer at the school. In 1993, Wang's father suffered a stroke and was confined to his bed. His health degenerated quickly after that. As the only son of the noted folk artist whose works have been collected by foreign dignitaries, Wang Jianzhong then shouldered the responsibility of carrying on his father's art, which is a precious part of China's cultural heritage.

In September 1990 when the 11th Asiad was held in Beijing, Wang Zigan was a member of the Shanghai Delegation in the Shopping Centre of Beijing Asiad, and Zhu Rongji (Chinese: 朱镕基), then Shanghai mayor, came to see the Shanghai Delegation. When he saw the performance Wang Zigan had gven, Zhu Rongji exclaimed: Wonderful cut (Chinese: 神剪)!

Wang Zigan had won the title of a Shanghai Model worker (Chinese: 劳动模范) for three consecutive years, was elected a member of Shanghai Municipal CPPCC (Chinese: 上海市政协), a member of the Folk Studies of China Folk Literaries and Arts Association (Chinese: 中国文学艺术家联合会民间研究会), council of China Folk Literature and Arts Studies (Chinese: 中国民间文艺研究会) and council of Shanghai Folk Literature and Arts Studies (Chinese: 上海市民间文艺研究会), joined China Fine Artists Association (Chinese: 中国美术家协会), and was awarded the title of a senior master in arts and crafts (Chinese: 高级工艺美术师) in 1987. He was granted the title of a Super Master in Arts and Crafts (Chinese: 工艺美术特级大师) and the honor medal, and was engaged by the Shanghai Municipal Government to do research in the Research Institute of Culture and History.

On 1 July 1983, the leaders of Shanghai Arts and Crafts Institution (previously known as Shanghai Arts and Crafts Studio) held a commemorate exhibition of Wang Zigan's 50-year papercutting career at Shanghai Fine Arts Museum (Chinese: 上海美术展览馆). Many celebrities of the art circle came to the show and jointly applauded his works.

Wang Zigan had been to Japan twice in the 1980s and once to Hong Kong to give lectures. In the meantime, he published a series of papercut collections. On the opening ceremony of the First Shanghai International Art Festival (Chinese: 第一届 上海国际电视艺术节), Wang Zigan appeared on a TV program and gave a papercut performance face to face with foreign and Chinese guests. Jiang Zemin (Chinese: 江泽民), then Shanghai mayor, sat beside him after the performance and chatted with him for half an hour about the past and present of papercutting. He praised his excellent skills and even mentioned the papercut artists in his hometown Yangzhou.

During the Cultural Revolution he turned to be the target of revolution. Dazibao (Chinese: 大字报), posters written in big characters, and mass criticism and repudiation turned the senior artists of his work unit into "bourgeois academic authorities", and by destroying the "four Olds" (Chinese: 破四旧), all the traditional artistic pieces were labeled with "feudalistic, bourgeois and revisionist" (Chinese: 封资修). The Arts and Crafts Studio, like other units of its kind throughout the country, was plunged into the hurly-burly of revolution. In the chaotic winter of 1966, Wang Zigan took his second son to Nanjing in order to "establishing revolutionary ties" (Chinese: 串联). He was dispatched to do chores in a canteen and drove a pedicab.

In 1960, the first Wang Zigan's papercut collection was published by Light Industry Publishing House (Chinese: 轻工业出版社). The arts and crafts circle established a system of professional titles, according the title Wang Zigan was awarded in Arts and Crafts Master (Chinese: 工艺师).

In 1957, The First National Senior Artists Congress (Chinese: 首届全国老艺人代表大会) was held in Beijing and Wang Zigan was elected a representative. In the congress, Zhu De (Chinese: 朱德) and other State leaders delivered speeches and came over to see the representatives from all over the country.

In 1957, his papercuts "Plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemum" (Chinese: 梅兰竹菊) and "Beijing Tian'anmen and Indonesia Treasure Palace"(Chinese: 北京天安门和印尼藏物宫) were given to foreign leaders as national gifts.

Then the government was committed to searching for artists with special skills everywhere and planned to get them organized. The Shanghai Arts and Crafts Studio (Chinese: 工艺美术研究室) (now Shanghai Arts and Crafts Institution, Chinese: 上海工艺美术研究所) was established in 1956, which engaged from the society twelve senior artists with a long artistic career and high professional skills to do professional research work. Wang Zigan, 37 years old at that time, and was the youngest of them.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, everything was looking forward to further development and the government paid enough attention of folk arts and as a result the art of papercutting by Wang Zigan drew attention of the relevant cultural departments. In 1953, the Bureau of Culture of Shanghai Municipal Government recommended some of Wang Zigan's works be exhibited in the East China Arts and Crafts Exhibition (Chinese: 华东地区工艺美术作品观摩会).

With the care of the Communist Party and the Government after 1949, Wang began to work in Shanghai Arts and Crafts Studio (Chinese: 工艺美术研究室; now Shanghai Arts and Crafts Institution, 上海工艺美术研究所). Seeing the wide difference in life of the present day from the old times and what life meant to him, he loved the work as well as the new China.

With the settlement of the marriage dispute, Wang Zigan began to consider doing business by himself, for the income from his master was not enough to feed himself at that moment, let alone his wife and the children they were to have. His master did not agree at first when he told him about the plan, but finally the master agreed with a requirement that put forth some economic terms in respect of compensations for the master. By 1945 when the Anti-Japanese War was ended, Wang Zigan had welcomed his personal victory as well and get rid of the control of his master.

In about 1943, Wang Zigan married Pan Miaoxin (Chinese: 潘妙新). Pan Miaoxin was the only daughter in her family, and happened to lease the backroom the "Heng Chang Xiang" when her family fled from Changshu, Jiangsu Province to Shanghai due to the Anti-Japanese War. Wang Zigan. Pan Miaoxin was well-born, calm tempered and pretty. She was well educated by her parents and had received several years of education. Like many girls and young ladies at that time in Shanghai, Pan Miaoxin loved embroidery very much, so she was fascinated at the first sight of the beautiful papercut works made by Wang Zigan, which she had never seen before. Spellbound by Wang Zigan's techniques, she would visited the papercut shop everyday to watch him working and sometimes helped him when he was at the busy time. The two young people then gradually fell in love with each other. Pan Miaoxin's mother held out fiercely against their marriage because she wished her daughter could married to a rich man so that she herself could live a leisurely life based on her daughter's marriage, by the way, this kind of idea was very common in the old times. However, they got married secretly, without her mother's permission.

In 1932, Wang Zigan, as a child under 13, moved into Shanghai with his uncle. After a while, Wang Zigan was accepted by a watchmaker's shop to do odd jobs. But he left there at last because of torture.

Wang Zigan (Chinese:王子淦) (April 18, 1920 - February 16, 2000) was a modern papercutting artist, master of arts and crafts, and famous Shanghai-style papercutter. His works contain both the delicacy of the South and the outgoingness of the North, ranging from flowers and grass to insects, birds, and beasts. His most important representative works are "The crowing of the cock" (Chinese: 一唱雄鸡天下白), "Chicken eats centipede" (Chinese: 鸡吃蜈蚣), etc. Some of his published works include "Selected papercutting works of Wang Zigan" (Chinese: 王子淦剪纸选), "History of Shanghai papercutting" (Chinese: 上海剪纸今夕) and "The creation of papercutting" (Chinese: 剪纸艺术的创新).