24-Solar-Term Iron Paper-Cutting

Paper-cutting is one of the most ancient Chinese traditional art crafts. As a type of ‘hollow-out’ art, it provides a great deal of transparency and artistic appreciation. The artist uses a pair of scissors to cut out various patterns such as window grille, door placard, wall deco, ceiling deco, lamp deco etc. In every festive or wedding ceremony, people will paste beautiful paper cuttings on the windows, walls, doors and lanterns in the house. As such the ambience of festivals will be further heightened.
The 24 solar terms is an ancient way of guiding agricultural activities in China started from the warring state period. As Chinese lunar calendar is a ‘fused calendar of yin and yang’, which means basing on the operations of the sun and moon, it doesn’t completely reflect the orbiting cycle of the sun. However, as China is an agricultural society, and needs to understand the revolution of the sun in-depth, agricultural activities were carried out according to the sun’s revolution. As such, the Chinese calendar was further added the 24 solar terms in order to determine the standard of leap month. The 24 solar terms will able to reflect the changes of seasons, serves as a guide to agriculture and thus, affecting the livelihood of thousands of families.
In order to evoke the public’s interest, passions and inheritance for the excellent crafts of paper-cutting and 24 solar terms, Selangor & FT Hainan Association (Thean Hou Temple) together with renowned Sasaran Art Association has created the first in the nation – iron paper-cutting craft display zone based on the traditional Chinese calendar’s 24 solar terms in 2017.

The ‘iron-craft’ paper-cutting is created with iron sheets instead of papers, coupled with laser cutting on iron panel and iron rod in shaping the model. This is to create art pieces which are more durable.
With this unique creation, our association was honoured by Malaysia Book of Records by creating the ‘Biggest 3D ‘Paper-cutting Artwork” Solar Terms Metal Panels Set’. There is a total of 11 panels.
In order to showcase the complete 24 solar terms, the association has created the remaining 13 iron paper-cutting solar-term panels during the spring festival in 2019 and rearranged them in the sequence of spring, summer, autumn and winter. They start from the entrance arch of Thean Hou Temple, going through the Marriage Registration Office and reach the Chinese chessboard area.
Each solar term shows different pattern with various sizes so that visitors will better understand the 24 solar terms. The association also specially created illustration boards in three languages, namely Chinese, Malay and English.