Raw rice paper has good water absorption properties and is used for calligraphy and freehand painting! Ripe rice paper has poor water absorption and is often used for meticulous Chinese painting.
The raw Xuan is slightly softer than the cooked Xuan.
The raw Xuan is made of cotton, pure leather, and the special leather series has not been processed, while the cooked Xuan is just the opposite.
Compared with cooked Xuan, the flexibility of raw Xuan paper is quite outstanding. If you hold raw Xuan in your hand, it will feel very soft. Use a brush to write on the raw Xuan paper. You can feel the full flexibility, while the cooked Xuan is a bit stiff and not as flexible in writing as the raw Xuan. If the raw material is kneaded into a ball and then ironed, it can still be restored to its original appearance as flat as before. Therefore, the rice paper generally used to frame works is Shengxuan.