Hou-Tien Cheng's Paper Art

"Pandas," by Hou-Tien Cheng

1 March

Bob, Norene, Jack, and I went to Sumo Sushi in Pennington for dinner last night. Just inside the front door was a spread of artwork for sale. It was all made from cut paper, each figure from a single sheet. Some were herds of horses. Others were dragons or cats. Behind the tables stood a man with a tray on wheels laden with black paper, white paper, paper plates, and a very sharp pair of shears.

The "master paper cutter," Hou-Tien Cheng, who has been making paper art for over forty years, moved around the room with his little cart and made paper art for people.

While we were eating Bob got up and said something to Mr. Cheng. He came to our table. Bob whispered in his ear. Cheng nodded. In less than a minute he made this for Jack:




It's tough to see from this scan Bob made, but this really is one piece of paper. It folds out to stand on its own, too.

Bob asked Cheng to make one of Norene on a bike. After some translating, and Bob asking, "Can you do it?" he smiled and said, "Yes." Then he told Norene to sit still. And here she is:



By this time all of the waitstaff and sushi chefs were standing behind Cheng. Bob asked him to do one of me on a racing bike. That required some translation too. I tried to sit still. Here I am, with a big ol' ponytail and a big ol' butt. A perfect likeness:



Mr. Cheng didn't want to leave Bob out, so he made him a cutout that's not suitable for public display: a silhouette of a man. If you pull his legs, something rather priapic pops out of his mid-section. Bob didn't scan this one for me, but he did bring it to Tiger Noodle this evening to show off to Preben, Maryella, Don, MaryAnne, Terry, and Jeff.

We called Judy over from the front desk. "I saw it from here," she said, on her way over. Bob pulled the legs. "Too small," Judy said.

Follow this link to see a video of Hou-Tien Cheng in action. It's not fast-forward; it's in real time.