Xu Jian's rabbit paper-cutting artworks. [Photo/Jinan Times]

Xu Jian, a 72-year-old Jinan resident, spent nearly one year creating over 150 rabbit themed paper-cutting artworks.

These rabbit paper-cuttings show diverse rabbit images, such as rabbits running, jumping and sitting.

As an inheritor of paper-cutting, an intangible cultural heritage item, Xu has been creating Chinese zodiac paper-cuttings for 14 years. At the end of every year, Xu exhibits his year-long artworks at different folk culture exhibition venues and introduce paper-cutting, with hopes of attracting more people's attention to the traditional art.

Xu fell in love with paper-cutting at the age of 19 during his visit to Weifang, where he was deeply attracted by the window decorations, which are displayed to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Xu has been paper-cutting for over 50 years.

Besides creating Chinese zodiac paper-cuttings, Xu likes creating paper-cuttings based on everyday life, such as tanghulu food stalls and fireworks for holidays, such as Spring Festival.

As an experienced paper-cutting craftsman, Xu also continues to promote the art. He established a group for paper-cutting enthusiasts nationwide to share artworks and learn from each other. Currently, the group has over 300 people.

With deep love for paper-cutting, Xu hopes to encourage more people to inherit paper-cutting in the future.

One of Xu's paper-cutting artworks shows daily life. [Photo/Jinan Times]

One of Xu's "Happy New Year" paper-cut artworks contains four Chinese characters. These characters together form the character fu, which means good fortune. [Photo/Jinan Times]