A cut above

Li recalls how she created the work. "I was an art teacher in an elementary school in my hometown, where I had a studio to do paper-cutting in my free time. I rode a bike to school every day in the early morning to read some picture books about the novel to figure out the plots and learn the personality traits of characters in the story and about the food, clothes and architecture depicted in the book to create the piece."

She was honored as an excellent teacher in Jilin province by the local government, and was given a chance to participate in a field trip to Beijing when she was creating the work. During the trip, she and other members of the excursion were arranged to visit Beijing Grand View Garden, a garden that reproduces the landscape of the characters' dwellings in The Dream of the Red Chamber.

When they arrived at the garden, it rained heavily, and other members of the group decided to stay on the bus, but Li insisted on visiting the attraction.

"I didn't bring an umbrella, so I just ran as fast as I could around the garden and took a quick look, but I still realized there was a big gap between images in my work and those shown by the statues and paintings in the garden. The scenes in the garden impressed me a lot and urged me to improve my work when I returned home," says Li.