Chinese origami artist Pei Haozheng spent a whole year painstakingly cutting an A4 sheet of paper into a 108-meter-long strip to set a unique world record.

Pei, also known as Hotz Pei, is no stranger to Guinness world records. He once folded the most origami flowers made from a single sheet of paper(100), and then created the largest origami snail ever, but this year he embarked on his most challenging record attempt yet – cutting the longest continuous strip of paper from a single A4 sheet. Technically, it should have been a walk in the park for this master of paper art, as the length to beat was a modest 2.5 meters, but he challenged himself to cut the longest strip possible, so he spent about a year experimenting with different types of paper, cutting techniques and instruments. In the end, he managed to cut a thin, continuous strip 108.15 meters in length.

Photo: Pei Haozheng

“The strip I created measured 108.15 meters long and 0.5 millimeters wide,” Hotz Pei told Guinness Records. “The entire process, from initial preparation to trials and errors to the official attempt and the final artwork, Between Chaos and Order, took approximately one year.”

To maximize his chances of success, the talented artist first had to identify the most appropriate medium for the challenges, and he ultimately settled on a silver piece of A4 paper with a mirror-like reflective surface. Once that was over, he had to figure out the best cutting method, and although he experimented with some advanced techniques and instruments, he found the most “primitive” option – cutting with scissors – to be the most effective.

Photo: Pei Haozheng

“The third step was the formal attempt, which demanded precision, patience, and technical skill,” the artist explained. “I carefully cut the paper, resulting in a strip that resembled a tangle of raffia grass. In the fourth step, I transformed the 108.15 m of paper strips into an artistic and organized artwork shaped like a cerebral nerve slice.”

“This world record was a personal challenge to explore the limits of topological transformation of this single sheet of paper,” Pei added.

Photo: Pei Haozheng

How he managed to cut a thin, continuous strip of paper about the length of a football stadium without accidentally breaking it is a mystery, but it’s hard to imagine someone breaking his record anytime soon.