Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings — Heritage from Farming Civilization

As one of China’s four major types of new year paintings, Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Painting is on the way to prosperity thanks to government support and market demand. The sales volume of Yangliuqing New Year Paintings kept increasing each year, the output value reaching 50 million CNY in 2014. At present, there are more than 70 new year paintings workshops and sales shops in Yangliuqing, about 10 of which have annual output over one million CNY.

New year painting is a folk art of China. During spring festivals, Chinese people would buy New Year paintings and post them on the interior as tokens of bliss and blessing. Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings are produced through painting and printing: lines are carved on the woodblocks first; then monochromes are printed on paper for two or three times; finally color brushes are employed to apply paint to the printings. Requiring both engraving and painting techniques, Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings demonstrate distinctive artistic features from other paintings.

“Yangliuqing New Year Paintings, which developed out of the agricultural civilization, are living fossils of Chinese culture and mirrors reflecting folk customs”, says an expert of folk customs.

The history of Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings dates back to Ming dynasty 300 years ago. The heyday of the art of new year paintings was in Qing Dynasty before the reign of emperor Guangxu. At that time, new year paintings were widely produced in workshops in Yangliuqing Town and nearby villages. After the first opium war, the production of Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings suffered a disastrous decline.

Tianjin Yangliuqing Paintings Society, founded in 1958, contributed significantly to the protection of the art on verge of extinction. At present, Tianjin Yangliuqing Paintings Society has a collection of more than 10,000 new year paintings after Ming dynasty and over 6,000 ancient blocks; it also fully retained the traditional techniques of Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings.

In 2004, Tianjin Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Painting was approved by the Ministry of Culture as a pilot project for the protection of Chinese folk culture, thereby starting the historical tracing, sorting and research of Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings.

In 2006, Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Painting was included in the first “national intangible cultural heritage list”, ranking the first in the category of fine arts. The other 33 local techniques of Tianjin in the national intangible cultural heritage list include: Peking opera, Baodi Pingju Opera, Tianjin Shidiao, Jingdong Dagu, “Clay Figurine Zhang” painted sculpture, Hui Nationality Broadsword Martial Arts, Jinmen Fagu, Hangu Feicha, Xiangsheng, Jingyun Dagu, Hebei Bangzi, Pingju Opera, Wei’s Kite, Tianjin Huanghui, and Goubuli Baozi.

From the 1990s, Yangliuqing saw the revival of private workshops of new year paintings. Wang Wenda, Feng Qingju, Huo Qingshun, and Huo Qingyou were acknowledged as inheritors of the technique of Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Paintings. From then on, a number of workshops and stores of new year paintings emerged.

Now, Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Painting has developed into an industry with ever increasing influence. The paintings have been displayed as Chinese folk art in Japan, France, UK, Italy, Thailand and Singapore.