Chinese folk art are artistic forms inherited from a regional or ethnic scene in China. Usually there are some variation between provinces. Individual folk arts have a long history, and many traditions are still practiced today. The general definition of folk art incorporates Chinese art forms that are not classified as fine arts.

The first two forms of paper art began in the Han Dynasty with Chinese Paper Cutting and Chinese Paper Folding. These arts have expanded globally.

China is the birthplace of the kite and Weifang is one of the chief places where Chinese kites originated.^{[citation needed]} Kite-flying became prevalent in Weifang in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and by the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)kite-flying had become even more popular, and there had appeared fairs on kites on a rather large scale.^{[citation needed]} Kites were sold not only across Shandong, but also to Jiangsu, Fujian, Anhui and other places.^{[citation needed]} The noted English scholar Joseph Needham listed kites in his book History of Science and Technology in China as one of the important contributions in science and technology that Chinese introduced to Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic. Folk Art is characterized by a naive style, in which traditional rules of proportion and perspective are not employed. Closely related terms are Outsider Art, Self-Taught Art and Naïve art.

As a phenomenon that can chronicle a move towards civilization yet rapidly diminish with modernity, industrialization, or outside influence, the nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture. The varied geographical and temporal prevalence and diversity of folk art make it difficult to describe as a whole, though some patterns have been demonstrated.

Characteristically folk art is not influenced by movements in academic or fine art circles, and, in many cases, folk art excludes works executed by professional artists and sold as "high art" or "fine art" to the society's art patrons. On the other hand, many 18th and 19th century American folk art painters made their living by their work, including itinerant portrait painters, some of whom produced large bodies of work.

Chinese folk flute solos were written to tell the traditions and tales of various tribes in China, around the 12th century. They were played mostly on wooden flutes, and thus the pieces that have survived till today are written in D, which is the key these early flutes were made in. This is also why, unlike most Chinese music, these pieces are not written in a pentatonic scale, but in a more middle eastern style. We can tell this because the ornamentation of these pieces is very similar to that of the bagpipes, which were invented in India, and also surprisingly the penny whistle and other celtic instruments.

These pieces were highly ornamented. Grace notes are used instead of tonguing, a technique used by the bagpipes. Unlike most western music, any two notes were used as grace notes, rather than a tone gap. These pieces were written by taking a short theme and developing it in three sections, each section adding more complex ornaments and rhythms as it progresses. Unlike the European folk structure which normally goes ABABAB etc., as in modern pop music, Chinese folk songs have a structure of AAA, or if you count the development as a change then: ABC.