Dwindling tradition on the rise again
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-06 06:26

However, there are only 80 craftsmen around in the business in the whole of Wuqiang County, with their average age exceeding 40, according to Guo. "Many veteran craftsmen gave up their jobs of making New Year pictures in previous hard years," Guo says.

"What a pity these wonderful woodblock New Year pictures have been fading away with the passage of time due to a lack of skilled craftsmen," says 56-year-old craftsman Huo Qingshun in Tianjin's Yangliuqing.

In recent years, China has taken a range of useful, substantial measures to revive this traditional folk art form.

In Shandong's Yangjiabu, the local government combined tourism development with the picture business a few years ago. "We invited tourists to come and buy our pictures. The tourists can witness not only the rural people's residence with touches of the imperial Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, but also the entire procedure of woodblock picture making," says Yang Gaozhi, head of the Yangjiabu Village.

According to Yang, the number of visitors grew from 20,000 in the 1990s to the current half a million. The 300-household Yangjiabu with a population of 1,000 can now turn out more than 20 million woodblock pictures a year, which are sold to over 100 countries and regions worldwide.

Meanwhile, young people like Li Shunyi's son in Jinan, have resumed the custom of sticking up traditional New Year pictures on windows and doors.

"Outdated things will probably become fashionable again as urban residents go for individuality in house decorations," says Xiang Yunju, secretary-general of the Chinese Folk Artists' Association.