New Year’s flavor from Yangliuqing

Chinese people are used to decorat their homes with New Year pictures (nianhua) during Spring Festival, as a symbol of New Year’s greetings. They are usually placed on doors or walls, to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck to the family.

Woodprint New Year paintings, one of the most distinctive wood-block art forms in China, are believed to first appear during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

The legend goes that Li Shimin, founder of the Tang Dynasty, often had nightmares about ghosts. In order to exorcise bad dreams, the emperor ordered two of his generals, Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde, to guard the door of his bedroom all night.

As it was impossible for the two generals to guard him every night, the emperor asked artists to paint their portraits and paste them on the door, thus creating the “door gods” which have become the major subjects of many woodcut pictures.

The New Year woodprint painting style has waned in popularity in modern times, but a few workshops still remain.

There are several leading production bases for New Year pictures across the country - Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Mianzhu in Sichuan Province, Wuqiang in Hebei Province, Zhuxianzhen in Henan Province, Yangjiabu Village near the eastern city of Weifang, Shandong Province, and Taohuawu in Jiangsu Province.

Of all these, Yangliuqing New Year pictures are generally considered the best-preserved, with the largest stock of high quality vintage woodblocks and sketches by artisans from centuries ago.

Yangliuqing New Year Picture : from yesterday to today

As a main kind of folk woodcut New Year pictures,Yangliuqing New Year pictures are named after its production place - Yangliuqing Town of Tianjin. With a history of 600 years Yangliuqing New Year pictures inherited the painting traditions of the Song (AD 960-1279) and Yuan (AD 1271-1368) dynasties and absorbed the essences of woodcut paintings, craftworks and stage arts of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644).

Yangliuqing New Year picture enjoyed its heyday in the Ming and early Qing dynasties. From the very beginning, Yangliuqing New Year picture art catered to the tastes of different social classes from ordinary farmers, city dwellers, to emperors of the Ming and Qing (AD 1644-1911) courts.

The richness of sub-genres and varieties of the folk art itself attracted many ancient intellectuals to participate in the creation of New Year pictures by contributing sketches of figures, landscapes, birds and flowers that were more refined than most of those produced by craftsmen of Yangliuqing pictures who only received training in the folk art’s skills.

In the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, of the 30 villages in Yangliuqing Township, there were over 300 art studios with at least 3,000 folk artisans engaged in New Year picture production, local records show. And on the three main streets of the township proper, there were hundreds of art shops, selling New Year pictures and other folk art works in at least 2,000 varieties, catering to the demands of consumers in North and Northeast China provinces.

Over the years the traditional folk art was on the verge of extinction. The paintings were rejected as a form of superstition after the founding of New China in 1949, but in the countryside villagers still bought them to decorate their homes.

In the 1960s, it finally recovered its splendor and improved the craft with the support from the new government.

For instance, in the early 1980s, farmers in Yangliuqing Township started to open small studios.

The old site of Yuchenghao, handicraft studio of Yangliuqing New Year picture

The old site of Yuchenghao, handicraft studio of Yangliuqing New Year pictures

Now Yangliuqing New Year pictures are a gem and loved by people both at home and abroad. They are exported to Italy, France, Britain, Belgium, Japan, Canada, the US, Singapore and Mexico.

Themes and Features

The themes expressed in New Year pictures cover a wide range, from plump babies to the Old God of Longevity, from landscapes to birds and flowers, from the ploughing cattle in spring to the rich harvest in autumn. Human figures often show artistic exaggeration, but the message in all pictures is always good luck, festivity or other nice things such as the crane or the peach which symbolizes a long life, the plum or peony which is a mark of good fortune and happiness.

Thanks to its rich themes, elegant patterns and comely colors, the Yangliuqing New Year pictures are very popular in the countryside, where just before the Spring Festival, every household will be busy doing spring cleaning and pasting colorful pictures or paper cuttings on their doors, windows, walls, even wardrobes and stoves.

One main variety is the chubby and lovely babies with either lotus in their hands or carps in their arms. The picture Liannianyouyu features a boy holding a lotus in his hand and a goldfish in his arms. “l(fā)ian“ in “l(fā)ianhua“ (lotus) stands for its homophone “l(fā)ian“ in “l(fā)iannian“( successive years) and “yu“ (fish) for its homophone “yu“ (surplus). Taken together, “l(fā)ianianyouyu “gives the meaning of “enjoying prosperity year after year.