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Yang Yehong, vice-chairwoman of the Red Cross Society of Jiaxing, volunteers to support Wuhan on Jan 25. [Photo/cnjxol.com]

Luo Yao, an art teacher in Xiuzhou district, Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang province, is preparing a special gift — paper cut portraits — for medical workers from Jiaxing who volunteered to support Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak in China, local media reported on Feb 9.

Luo has been dedicated to promoting the ancient skill of paper cutting over the past 12 years and has become the district's official inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage item.

The sudden epidemic upended Luo's Spring Festival plans, and like most Chinese people, she spent her holiday at home watching NCP-related news.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, she was touched by news saying that the first group of medical workers from Jiaxing had left to support Wuhan, and the next day, she decided to make paper cut portraits for each of them.

The most difficult part was finding photos of all the medical workers. Luo has no contacts and no way to obtain any photos, so she had to resort to scanning publications for any photos she could find of them.

"No one should be left out. Each of them is a hero," said Luo, who finally managed to find photos of the 16 medical workers.

It took her 14 days to finish the paper cuttings.

As of Feb 9, Jiaxing had sent a total of 71 medical workers to support Wuhan and Luo said she planned to make paper cut portraits for the remaining 55 heroes as well.