Businesswoman drives paper-cutting industry in Ningxia

Li Jian, a young entrepreneur from Ningxia Hui autonomous region, has spent 11 years doing business with paper-cutting craft and promoting the traditional culture to a wider group of folk arts aficionados.

Li's mother, Fu Zhao'e, is a national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor. As a child, Li used to watch her mother make paper cuts and was impressed with their exquisite beauty. To continue her mother's delicate skills, Li established the Ningxia Yimeng Liyi Cultural Art Co after graduating from the university in 2009.

She got some experience in the small commodity production hub Yiwu, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. Over the past 10 years, Li and her team have created more than 150 types of cultural and creative products such as "Map of Ningxia" paper-cut metal bookmarks, Helan Mountain rock painting emoticons, and zodiac backpacks.

Li and her husband have set up a paper-cut portrait database based on more than 100,000 artistic works by her mother. Supported by the face recognition technology, they developed an app to demonstrate users' paper-cut portraits which are popular in scenic areas.

In addition, Li gave lessons in more than 100 schools, which benefited more than 20,000 children in improving hands-on ability and hand-brain coordination while experiencing the unique charms of this traditional craft.