During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people regarded paper-cutting as a kind of fun to embellish and beautify their lives. Speaking of which, this has something to do with Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty. After Yang Guang became emperor, he began to build Yangzhou in 605 AD (the first year of the Daye). After the construction of Hangou was completed and the canal was opened to navigation, a lot of construction work was carried out here and the palace villa was built. He visited Yangzhou three times to enjoy himself.

In Shanglin Garden in the west of Yangzhou City, there are exotic flowers and plants from all over the country, as well as precious animals and rare birds. Whenever he visited the garden with his maids at night, without turning on the lights, he would have people capture many fireflies and send them to them. The light fills the mountains and valleys, shining like daylight. In winter, the flowers and trees in the garden withered and the water in the pond froze. Emperor Yang's interest in visiting was not diminished, but he ordered the palace maids to imitate folk paper-cutting, use colorful brocades to decorate the branches with flowers and leaves, hang them on the trees, and cut them into lotuses, water chestnuts, etc. Remove the ice cubes from the pond and arrange them on the water one by one to create a beautiful scenery at the turn of spring and summer, which is pleasing to the eye. This kind of "Firefly Garden" and "Cut Music", like the "Miscellaneous Tower" and "Dragon Boat", reflect the extravagant and absurd sinful life of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. However, from the perspective of cutting ribbons and flowers, it illustrates the origin of Yangzhou paper-cutting. It has a long history.

In the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou had the custom of paper-cutting to welcome the spring. On the first day of spring, people cut paper into flowers, spring butterflies, spring coins, and spring flowers, which are "either hung on the heads of beauties or embellished under flowers." It is a pleasure to watch each other. Li Shangyin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote, "The beauty of gold-cutting spreads the customs of Jing Dynasty, and the cutting of ribbons inspires the style of Jin", praising the beauty of paper-cutting and making it popular among people. Paper-cutting at that time was still superstitious. Yangzhou folk paper-cut figures, paper horses and paper money are used to pay homage to ghosts and gods. The great poet Du Fu wrote in his poem "Peng Ya Xing" that "warm soup washes my feet, paper cutting calls to my soul", which is a reflection of this kind of folk customs. In the spring of 1980, people from all walks of life in Yangzhou welcomed the "Portrait of Master Jianzhen" back to his hometown to "visit relatives". Yangzhou artists made a set of paper-cuts of "Master Jianzhen", for which Mr. Zhao Puchu wrote a poem "Recalling Jiangnan", which included "The moon is full". The sentence "City song crosses the sea, magical paper-cutting and soul-calling" cites thousands of years of customs and uses a divine pen to express the nostalgia of Master Jianzhen in his hometown and homeland.

The papermaking industry flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and there were large papermaking workshops in Yangzhou. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, high-quality tribute paper was mass-produced. As a strong material condition, it also promoted the development of paper-cutting art. Since ancient times, Yangzhou has been home to many exotic flowers and plants. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, Yangzhou's governors, poets and writers have all expressed their love for the flowers and trees, decorated them elegantly, performed many events, and written many famous articles. This is an important factor in the theme of paper-cutting. Yangzhou paper-cutting mainly focuses on flowers, which is indeed an important manifestation of the thousand-year tradition. After liberation, paper-cutting, like other traditional handicrafts, received the attention of the party and the government. In 1955, the Folk Craft Society (now Yangzhou Craft Factory) was established to organize scattered folk artists and arrange good working conditions, which greatly stimulated their creative enthusiasm. There are more than 1,000 kinds of Yangzhou paper-cuts, which are sold to dozens of countries and regions, making contributions to cultural and artistic exchanges at home and abroad.

The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20, 2006, this heritage was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists. On June 5, 2007, Zhang Xiufang from Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province was determined by the Ministry of Culture to be the representative inheritor of cultural heritage projects, and was included in the first batch of 226 representative inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage projects. . On July 6, 2009, the National Paper-cut Gifts and Tourist Souvenirs Fair hosted by the China Paper-cut Museum concluded successfully. This was the first national paper-cut fair held in Yangzhou. At the trade fair, Yangzhou paper-cutting launched various forms of packaging such as books, frames, mirrors, folding fans, etc., which were put together with the varieties of paper-cutting from all over the country and were not inferior.

Yangzhou paper-cutting is actually very suitable for making tourist souvenirs. Not only is it exquisite in craftsmanship, it has strong local and traditional characteristics, its price is within the psychological range acceptable to tourists, and it is light in weight to carry. It is favored by the tourism industry. People are unanimously optimistic. The largest transaction volume at the National Paper-cut Gifts and Tourist Souvenirs Fair is Yangzhou paper-cut.

At the trade fair, paper-cutting artists and people from the tourism industry from all over the country praised Yangzhou paper-cutting art and expressed their hope that Yangzhou paper-cutting would break through tradition, focus on practicality, and win a bigger market. Some experts believe that Yangzhou paper-cutting is highly artistic and can be made into large format and combined with interior decoration. Others have suggested that paper-cutting can be used in a wider market. The fashionable wedding photos of young people in Shanghai have also been beautified in the form of paper-cutting.

The spring for the development of Yangzhou’s paper-cut industry has arrived. In June 2009, Yangzhou City issued a preliminary plan for the development of Yangzhou's paper-cut industry, proposing ideas for the development of the paper-cut industry in the next few years from aspects such as cultural inheritance and market prospects for industrial development projects. Continue to hold the biennial National Paper-cutting Expo, and expand the popularity of Yangzhou paper-cutting through mutual display and exchange of paper-cutting art with other places. Efforts will be made to build the "Zhongjian" brand trademark, lead the development of paper-cutting nationwide, explore domestic and foreign markets, and gradually form an industrial chain from the design to production and mounting of paper-cutting works.

Yangzhou paper-cutting will take the road of industrialization and prepare to build a national Yangzhou paper-cutting processing and production base. The annual output value is expected to reach 15 million yuan, providing supply guarantee for the development of Yangzhou paper-cutting production. Wang Jing of the China Paper-cutting Museum said that in the face of increasingly fierce market competition, Yangzhou paper-cutting must not only demonstrate superb skills, but also promote them to the market, from exhibition culture to sales culture, to gain a foothold in the market. Launched a paper-cut patent promotion project and cleverly integrated the two major industries of paper-cut art and personalized clothing through the development of paper-cut cultural T-shirts. Actively develop tourist souvenirs for scenic spots, develop the paper-cut animation industry, and extend the paper-cut art that is subordinate to folk art. Explore paper-cut animation expression techniques, develop animation works with Yangzhou paper-cut characteristics, and expand the influence of Yangzhou paper-cut among young people.

In 2009, Yangzhou paper-cutting has begun to move towards corporate cultural gifts, home decoration shaft and frame products, as well as new products such as greeting cards, desk calendars, wall calendars, gift boxes, lantern hangings and other new products. The paper-cut patent promotion project will be officially launched in May 2009. The paper-cut animation industry will complete preliminary negotiations before June, complete early production in September, and officially appear on the screen by the end of the year.