CALLED "a paper maniac" by his friends and family, Hua Xingfu has spent his whole life dedicated to paper. He worked for decades in the Shanghai No.8 Printing Factory and became a master of paper-cutting - using his own hands instead of scissors - after he retired.

In fact, rather than "cutting" the paper he tore it, in accordance with the techniques of a folk tradition thousands of years old, now almost forgotten. The art is called "si zhi" (paper-tearing).

This interview took place in Hua's "paper-tearing art studio" - actually, his house, consisting of two small rooms .

"Paper-tearing works are much more difficult to make than those which use scissors. Without the sharp edge of the scissors, it's very hard to cut out tiny pieces, no bigger than the eyeball of a fish," Hua said.

He has created over 300 works, some of which were hanging on the walls of his house.

The popular paper-cut of the Chinese characters "hong shuang xi " (double happiness, connected to the character "xi" meaning a happiness for a newly wedded couple), which had been made for his son's wedding, had been augmented by his own additions. The straight horizontal and vertical strokes of the characters had been cut into the shapes of propitious things, such as lucky birds, lotuses and guavas.

Having been dedicated to paper-cutting by hand for years, the nails on Hua's two thumbs had become much thicker than those of ordinary people while the fingertips had become more pointed.

A new passion

Hua, now 58, acquired his obsession with paper-cutting three years ago, by accident. He was asked to retire from his loss-making factory which was slashing the number of employees to reduce costs. He hoped to "find something to kill time and to enrich retirement life."

At that time, he checked his mail box every day and found it was filled with all kinds of advertising brochures and other pieces of paper.

"It was such a waste and I started to think about how to make use of it," Hua said.

A beam of light struck his mind - the memory of an old craftsman who made paper-cuts by hand. Hua had he met him when he was about 12 years old.

Rigorous training

"Many people are good at paper-cutting these days, but I have never seen anyone who does it with their own hands since that encounter," he said. He decided to practice the dying skill on his own.

He locked himself in one of his rooms and surrounded himself with all kinds of paper. He started to practice with the easiest task - the "double happiness" - first.

"It's much harder than you might imagine. The paper becomes too thick to be torn easily after being folded into layers," he said.

He spent day after day studying the craft. His hands ached too much to close into a fist and his nails became so loose they were unable to shell a small bean.

But his effort resulted eventually in his first presentable work, six months later - a rabbit.

Ever since he has been creating a wide varity of works in his own style. He has made more than 10 series of such works, including the impressions and images of people, dancing figures and Buddhas.

"Paper-tearing works are not like paper-cut ones with smooth lines. The outlines are rough but more three-dimensional," Hua said.

Meanwhile, he has also studied paper-cutting works and books, in order to help in the perfecttion of his tearing works.

"Paper-cutting has a history of over 1,500 years. Paper-tearing skills originated from folk arts and were even earlier than paper-cutting. After paper was invented during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) and before the advent of scissors, people used their hands to make beautiful paper works," he said.

Hua thought his interest in the fine arts which had flourished in his childhood had assisted him in the creation of outstanding and distinctive works.

Since he was very young, he had been in the habit of visiting the Shanghai Fine Arts Museum regularly to make up for the fact that he had no't had the chance to study art in a professional school.

At that time, admission to the museum cost 10 cents, but he has only had a tiny amount of pocket money to spend. In order to save the bus fare, which was four cents, he would walk from Jiangsu Lu, where he lived, to Nanjing Lu, which took about an hour each time. He would take a small notebook each time as well, in oirder to copy the art works he saw.

"I worked out the outlines in the museum and then I would add details from memory after returning home," he said.

Challenges abounds

He still has the piles of old notebooks, even today, in which he copied many famous works of both Chinese or Western art. The paper has become yellowish with age.

"The habit helped me to develop a taste for the arts. But unlike professional artists, I don't have so many 'dos or don'ts' theories in my brain to constrain my creations," he said.

The most difficult thing for Hua was tear paper impressions or images of person at live performances.

"You have to grasp the shifting expressions and main characteristics of the face of a strange person very quickly," he said.

Hua would design works according to the different textures and colours of paper. He liked to make use of the original colour of the paper to illustrate themes in the paper-tearing works, for instance, he used old newspapers to tear images of the buildings on the Bund in the 1930s and a Carrefour Supermarket brochure to tear the image of dancing kids in colourful clothing.

Hua said he didn't go to the fine art museum any longer because the admission has been raised to 20 yuan. "It's too expensive for me," he said.

At a folk art fair at the Yuyuan Garden in 2002, he was discovered by the head of the Dongfang Jueji (Oriental unique skills) Performance Group and he started to perform at big events, which brought him about 100 yuan for each performance. Some of his works were also sold, but Hua said that was not his incentive.

He put up a small stand in the residential area during the summer vacations to teach students the endangered paper-tearing skills.

"Young people seemed not to like it very much because it demands great perseverance, patience and a lot of time," Hua said.