Cutting edge of tradition

In late 2011, he quit his last job as a tea dealer, which had an annual income of more than 300,000 yuan. It was a decision that most people, including his farmer parents, could not understand, when few people joined paper art as a profession.

"Society tends to judge whether a job is good or not by the money it makes," Ye says. "But I think life is only fulfilling if you do something you like and enjoy.… I kept changing jobs, but none of them made me happy and I didn't know why I got so busy making a living. To get rid of the meaningless life, I had to find its meaning, and to me, it's through paper-cutting," Ye says.

In his 7-square-meter room, he created Wait in March 2012, which he describes as one of his best paper-cut pieces.

It is a 1.2-meter-long and 1.2-meter-wide work, featuring a bird resting quietly on the branch of a blossoming tree. The bird is like himself, waiting for a bright tomorrow, Ye says.