Paper-cutting is an extension of the traditional art category of the fifth batch of representative items of municipal intangible cultural heritage in Huai'an. Historical evolution and distribution Paper-cutting is a hollow art that gives people a sense of transparency and beautiful artistic enjoyment visually. The earliest paper-cutting works in my country were discovered in the 1950s by archaeologists in the Astana ancient tombs of the Northern Dynasties (386 AD to 581 AD) near the Gaochang site in the Turpan Basin of Xinjiang. They were made of hemp paper and were all folding paper-cutting. Their discovery provided physical evidence for the history of the formation of paper-cutting art in my country. In the Tang Dynasty, paper-cutting was in a period of great development. Du Fu's poem contained the sentence "Warm water washes my feet, paper-cutting calls my soul", and the custom of calling souls with paper-cutting was already popular among the people at that time. In the Song Dynasty, the papermaking industry gradually matured, and there were many types of paper products, which provided conditions for the popularization of paper-cutting. For example, "fireworks" became folk gifts, and "window flowers" were pasted on windows. The application scope of paper-cutting has gradually expanded. Jiangxi Jizhou Kiln uses paper-cutting as a pattern for ceramics, and makes ceramics more exquisite through glazing and firing. Folks also use paper-cutting to carve the skins of animals such as donkeys, cows, horses, and sheep into the shapes of shadow puppet characters. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the art of paper-cutting gradually matured and reached its heyday. The application scope of folk paper-cutting handicrafts is more extensive. For example, the floral decorations on folk lanterns, the patterns on fans, and the patterns of embroidery, etc., are all processed by using paper-cutting as decoration. The paper-cutting in Huai'an area was also introduced from other places during this period and took root and spread throughout the city. Basic content and main inheritors Paper-cutting is closely related to people's lives. Every time of the year and festival, people make paper-cutting to beautify the living environment and pray for good luck. The basic procedures are composition, design, and hands-on production. The raw materials are generally red paper, which means auspiciousness. The styles include window flowers, lamp flowers, wedding flowers, door paper, shoe flowers, curtain flowers, etc. The themes of creation include animals, characters, historical stories, current events, etc. Pan Lanying is the representative of paper-cutting in Qingjiangpu District, Huai'an City. Pan Lanying (1941), female, learned paper-cutting from her aunt when she was 10 years old, and has been doing it for more than 60 years. After more than 60 years of practice and tempering, Pan Lanying's paper-cutting integrates the roughness of northern paper-cutting and the delicacy of southern paper-cutting. The shapes are vivid, the expressions are realistic, the knife skills are smooth, and the lines are elegant. No draft is needed, only the ideas in the mind are conceived. She uses the scissors and paper, and uses the scissors instead of pens. Her hands move as she wishes, continuously, smoothly and elegantly, like a "one-stroke painting" that is completed in one go, which is amazing. Pan Lanying's paper-cutting themes are rich, including fortune, longevity, happiness, life customs, landscapes, flowers, birds, fish and insects, etc. Paper-cutting is a unique art that contains many aspects such as aesthetics, history, philosophy, folklore, archaeology, and cultural anthropology. It is known as a "ground cultural relic" and a cultural "living fossil". It provides an important reference for the study of Chinese folklore, sociology, folk art, and other humanities and social sciences such as the history of Chinese folk paper-cutting.