"This means you will never know what the final outcome will be, which colors will be left and which will not. The unpredictability is the most interesting part, and I think being natural is beautiful," he says.

The creative process is usually slow. It took Ye at least two weeks to draw and make a paper-cut work based on Farewell My Concubine, a classic Peking Opera featuring the love story of Xiang Yu, a warlord in the late Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), and his concubine Yu Ji. Ye did not cut two of the characters in his creation; instead, he used flowers and curves to represent the heroine of the story.

To let more people know and appreciate the beauty of the folk art, Ye also set up a paper-cutting gallery in Xiamen in 2015. He has worked with global companies, covering sectors such as hotels, tea brands, restaurants and architecture. In March, his four paper creations were sold on Yuanqi platform for non-fungible tokens as art trade.

"I want to extend the boundaries of paper-cutting to everyday life, letting more people get to know the craft," Ye says.

Hu Meidong contributed to the story.