Lü Shengzhong (; born 1952) is a Chinese artist who specializes in the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting. He came of age during the turbulent Cultural Revolution. When China started to open up following the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, Lu Shengzhong turned to traditional Chinese folk arts, unlike his contemporaries who embraced contemporary art forms practiced in the West, such as installation art, oil paintings and performance art. "I walked away from the cultural confusion of the time and turned back to traditional folk art," he says. His hand cut red tissue-paper art works, with their bold, centered, mandala-like designs, resemble antique paper cuts, combined with calligraphic elements with streams of hand-drawn elements skimming over the musings of sages. Early life Lü was born in the Dayuji village in Shandong, China, in 1952. Shandong has long been known for its paper cutting art culture. Lu's father was a farmer where his mother was a house-wife, who was well known around the village for her paper cutting talents. As a child, Lu fell in love with the way his mother would create art with cut scraps of paper. As Lü got older, his fascination for paper cutting began to fade. As a young adult he joined the army for a short while. After the army, he worked for a short period of time as a film projectionist. In the mid 1970s he attended art school at Shandong Normal University, and graduated in 1978 with a degree in Fine Arts. After graduation he later attended Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing for his masters program in the early 1980s. During this time period, China's art scene began a change from socialist realist paintings. His classmates began to discover rock & roll music, blue jeans, jazz, as well as the art genre of Dada. Lu Shengzhong graduated from Central Academy of Fine Art in 1987, with a masters in folk art. After earning his masters, Lu began to travel through China's hinterland. One of his memorable trips was the northern Shaanxi province, a rough area that's known for its rough, arid terrain, as well as the poverty within the area. Lu embraced the culture, by watching the local peasant women create memorable shapes and objects out of paper. For example, they would cut out, frogs, mice pomegranates, lotus flowers, rabbits, etc. Early career In 1988, Lü had his