Chinese New Year Posters and Peasant Paintings

Chinese New Year Posters represent a long standing and honored tradition within Chinese history.  Their perseverance and popularity in the modern world are due to festive designs and spontaneity of colours within each print.

The tradition of New Year posters can be traced back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) where pictures of historic gods were posted above doors and gates to ward off evil spirits and bring luck to town residents. This tradition gradually grew within China and the pictures above the doors soon found their way on to posters and prints. New Year posters came into circulation in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when the emperor ordered the artist, Wu Daozi, to create a painting of the famous door god, Zhong Kui. This painting was then copied and distributed throughout China. New Year ink prints had become a much loved tradition by the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and colour paintings grew in popularity within the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).

Many Chinese New Year paintings are linked to Chinese folk stories and customs. The simplicity of the style and vibrant colours retell these ancient tales to the modern world with a stroke of a brush. Other paintings explain the rich and unique culture and customs of centuries long gone. People’s wishes and aspirations for the year ahead are often expressed through the original designs using classic Chinese symbols such as animals, landscapes, gods and goddesses. New Year posters were also used for other festivities throughout the year including weddings, births and good academic results.

New Year prints were predominantly made by rural, peasant artisans. Many artistic peasants passed down their skills and craftsmanship to their descendents. After the 1940’s, scholarly artists began to create New Year Posters which focused on the promotion of the People’s Liberation Army.

There are many forms of Chinese New year paintings including woodblock printing, stone block printing, offset printing and traditional Chinese painting. These techniques all produce powerful and informative images regarding Chinese culture and life. The craft of New Year posters is considered to be an important form of Chinese history and reflects ongoing social and cultural change within China. This joyous type of folk art has gained much praise from the international art world and continues to be acknowledged as an important and relevant Chinese custom.

Chinese New Year posters differ depending on their origin of location within China. Famous towns acknowledged for these paintings include Yangliuqing, Foshan and Weifang. Each Chinese New Year, you are certain to find traditional and new designs placed on doors and walls throughout each province.

Chinese Peasant Paintings focus on the peasant lifestyle and traditions within rural provinces throughout China. They recount the lifestyle of the 800 million peasants currently living in rural provinces. Many view these paintings as pure imagination and a vivid use of colour allows the mind to wander beyond the images into the simplistic world of the countryside.

There are currently more than forty villages, known as “painting villages” which specialize in peasant paintings. These folk paintings were first discovered during the 1950’s when peasants were encouraged to create simplistic and bold paintings to urge the masses to work towards industrialization. Peasant paintings became increasingly popular during the “Great Leap Forward” campaign from 1958 to 1960, which aimed to increase China’s industrial capacity to match western nations. Many paintings included images of hard work such as harvesting and farming. Other paintings pictured the benefits reaped from hard work and cooperation.

Freedom and nature are common themes in modern peasant paintings which display the naivety and peacefulness of the country side. The bold, bright colours and exaggerated art forms distinguish peasant paintings from many other painting styles within the world. Subjects can range from work, animals and festivals to landscapes, village customs and children.

The end of the industrialization campaign saw a rapid decrease in support and interest in peasant paintings. However, rural artisans continued to develop their skills and continued to paint surrealistic and imaginative paintings. They were supported by the Folk Arts and Crafts Commission who encouraged peasant artists to continue their art.

In the 1970’s, there was a major campaign formed which aimed to bring awareness of the unique and exaggerated style of peasant paintings to the art world. The campaign was created by Wu Tongzhang who was the director of the Jinshan Cultural Bureau. Peasant painting centers started to appear in rural towns across many provinces. This allowed rural artisans to extend their skills and for the world to discover the imaginative art works of Chinese peasants

The Chinese Peasant Painting Festival has been held three times since its beginning in 2001. It has helped attract attention to the need to continue supporting rural artisans financially and culturally. Due to urbanization, the simplicity and rural motives of peasant paintings are in danger of becoming forgotten. The essence and culture of peasant life must be protected if this art form is to survive.

Ansai Peasant Paintings

The famous Ansai peasant paintings feature bright and vivid images of the lives and loves of peasants throughout China. The bold and colourful pictures are cherished as a reflective representation of the artistic talents of the Chinese peasant population.

Ansai is a small town within the Shaanxi province. It is well known for its creative and vivid peasant paintings and paper cuttings. It is influenced by many art forms from around the Ansai area including Shanbei paper cuttings, embroidery and cotton-made tigers.

Ansai peasant paintings are renowned for their use of child-like, exaggerated images and simplistic peasantry themes. The paintings emphasize the simplicity of rural life and feature real life scenes from festivals, the working day and family life.

In 1989, Ansai was officially given the title “Nation Wide Modern Folk Painting Town”. Women are the main artisans who seem to have innate skills of creativity and imaginative expression.

The National Art Museum of China has shown many Ansai paintings in recent years and continues to support peasant artisans and their work.

Recently, Ansai was officially recognized as the top “Peasant Painting Village” in 1998 by the State Ministry of Culture. The town has also opened “The Cultural Hall of Ansai County” which is committed to the preservation of traditional folk cultures. Many peasant paintings are on display in the seven exhibition halls.

Ansai peasant paintings are talented representations of the skills of peasants and portray the innocence and joyous nature of peasant life. They are perfect paintings to hang on any wall and regarded as a much loved traditional Chinese folk art.
 

Dongchangfu New Year Poster

Dongchangfu is the ancient name given to the city Liaocheng of the Shandong Province. The stunning New Year woodblock prints still produced in Liaocheng are known as Dongchangfu New Year posters.

Dongchangfu and Yangjiabu in Weifang are both known as the folk painting towns of Shandong and represent the eastern and western systems of woodblock printing in the province.

Originating over three hundred years ago, Dongchangfu New Year posters are made by many craftsmen within the city who embrace the unique local style with traditional elements and motifs involved with New Year posters.

There are two main categories for Dongchangfu New Year posters. Traditional paintings originate from hanging door gods within villages to ward off evil spirit. This category includes ancient fables, folklore and historical legends. The festive and symbolic category captures the joyous essence of New Year celebrations and people’s blessings for the year. Auspicious symbols such as fish, babies, flowers and the colour red are common themes and images.

There are seven main procedures craftsmen must work through to create colourful and exquisite New Year posters. These include sketching the design and transferring it to a woodblock, carving the design into the woodblock and separating it into different colours. The design in then printed onto thin pieces of paper one colour at a time. Up to eight different coloured woodblocks can be used for one single design. Dominant colours include red, pink, yellow, green, blue and black.

Dongchangfu New Year woodblock prints are a symbolic representation of the traditional and cultural lives of the people of Shandong. The detailed and colourful designs have created a place for this style of New Year posters as an important traditional folk art in China.

Foshan New Year Posters

Foshan is famously known as one of the ancient folk art cities dedicated to preserving the tradition of Chinese New Year posters. The posters are classed as one of the “four famous woodblock New Year posters” along with Tianjin’s Yangliuqing, Suzhou’s Taohuawu and Shandong’s Weifang posters.

Situated in the south of China in the Guangdong Province, Foshan has a rich culture in folk arts which it continues to protect and preserve today. It is dedicated to preserving its unique artistic heritage and supports its local artisans in their traditional crafts.

The history of Foshan New Year posters can be traced back to the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) Dynasties when people used to carve images of gods on their door to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck in the year to come. This custom was extremely popular in the Guangdong province and other southern provinces in China.

Over time, the carvings gradually developed into prints and paintings made for the New Year celebrations. It was during the Yongle period (1403-1425) in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that this tradition was adopted by Foshan and New Year posters started to feature on walls, doors and windows throughout the city.

There are three main types of New Year posters available in Foshan. Shouhui are original paintings, muyin are wood printings and Muyintianse incorporates both painting and wood prints.

Themes and subjects of New Year posters in Foshan are wide and limitless. Many posters have images of gods and spirits while others feature historical figures or stories from the local classical opera. All posters include an essence of the local area and represent the area’s culture and heritage.

Foshan New Year posters are distinguished by the simple colours used in most posters. Red, yellow and green dominate the colour palette within Foshan folk art. Orange backgrounds are also a distinguishable feature of Foshan New Year posters. Gold and silver linings are often added to belts, armour and gowns of images to add a touch of sophistication to the playful designs.

There is only one workshop left in Foshan which is dedicated to creating imaginative New Year woodblock posters. Opened by the craftsman Feng Jun, the workshop is called “Feng Jun Ji” and is affectionately known as “door god jun”. Feng Jun Ji was known throughout China as the representative of Foshan woodblock New Year posters during the Republic of China (1912-1949). Feng Jun’s son and grandson continue to create new, innovational New Year posters.

The Foshan Folk Arts Research Association was established in 1956 to research, preserve and promote local folk art. The association has played a vital role in protecting and developing the artistic foundations of Foshan. With their support, hopefully the tradition of New Year posters will be present in Foshan for many Chinese New Years to come.

Gaomi New Year Posters

Gaomi New Year posters are unique representations of the traditional New Year prints made throughout China. Often referred to as Puhui New Year posters, they are only produced in the Gaomi County of the Shandong Province. The villages surrounding the Jiang and Xia towns specialize in this original category of New Year posters.

The materials and procedures in creating these original and creative New Year posters differentiate from the typical Chinese New Year woodblock prints or paintings. Willow branches, known in Chinese as Puhui, are burnt down to ash which is used to sketch the outline of the picture on to a thin piece of paper. The ash outlined paper is then pressed onto a number of other bases to produce several copies of the design. The artisan then paints the face and hands pink and adds other colours to the desired parts of the picture. Gold paint is added to the design for a touch of local flavor. Special oil is then brushed over the artwork to give it an elegant finish. The Gaomi artisans keep the formula of the oil a secret from other New Year woodblock craftsmen to preserve originality.

This new form of creating New Year posters developed in the Chenghua Period (1465-1488) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Puhui New Year posters were first created by the Wang family from the Gongpomiao village of the Bei County in Gaomi. Along with the four sons of Zhang, the Wang family quickly gained widespread attention for their original designs and alterations on the traditional folk art of New Year posters. During the Qianlong Period (1736-1796) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), the students of the Wang family created their own workshop which became the centre of the thriving Gaomi New Year poster industry. Puhui posters became popular in many parts of China including Yantai, Linyi, Xuzhou, Inner Mongolia and the northeastern provinces.

Gaomi Puhui New Year posters entered a new stage of production in the Jiaqing Period (1796-1821) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The posters were no longer individually hand painted. They involved half printing and half painting techniques leading to the growth of posters sold annually. However, the production of a single design was still a long process which made the quantity of posters limited.

The Puhui poster industry began to decline in the Guangxu Period (1875-1908) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). Due to social unrest, the Japanese Invasion (1937-1945) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), many original posters and designs were destroyed leaving the traditional folk art in a period of neglect.

Fortunately, Puhui New Year posters were revived with the support of the local government. Both the Folk Arts Research Centre and Puhui New Year Posters Association are committed to retrieving the skills and popularity it experienced before its period of neglect.

In 2006, Gaomi Puhui New Year posters were listed among the first group of folk arts to be included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The famous Puhui poster craftsman, Lv Zhenli was also listed as one of the 226 representative heirs of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Puhui New Year paintings are classed as the “strange flower of Folk Arts”. Their original designs have captivated audiences throughout China and the rest of the world. With the local and national government’s support, Gaomi New Year posters will continue to bring joy and amazement for many generations to come.

Huxian Peasant Paintings

Huxian is the birthplace of peasant paintings and remains a prominent town for rising peasant artists. Huxian is located forty minutes southwest of Xian and has a population of fifty thousand people, two thousand of which are classed as professional painters.

Peasant paintings originated in Huxian in 1950 and became dominant modern folk art through the years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The County Communist Party Committee financially supported the growth of art work by peasants after noticing the artistic potential of workers in Huxian. Peasant workers painted their progress on construction sites to motivate and inspire themselves. Art classes by professional painters were organized in Huxian to improve and nurture the talents of the peasants.

During the Cultural Revolution, inspirational peasant paintings from Huxian were used to show the world the artistic potential of workers. Themes ranged from political affairs to inspiring the masses to support the new reforms. Many paintings were sent abroad as representations of the new emerging art of China.

In modern times, the themes of peasant paintings reflect ordinary life in rural areas. Simplistic subjects are mostly used such as harvesting, festivals, animals, family and myths. Huxian paintings are distinguishable by their use of bright red and green colours and primitive exaggerated images.

In 1976, The Huxian Farmer’s Painting Exhibition Hall was built to exhibit the famous works of the town. It is divided into eight sections according to the subject of the painting. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Huxian to view the bold and imaginative works of the local peasants.

Huxian peasant paintings have received much praise and admiration from the international artistic world over the past forty years. Approximately 1500 paintings have been published in Chinese national periodicals and four hundred and twenty five paintings have received awards within domestic art exhibitions. Over 4500 peasant paintings have been invited to be displayed in exhibitions in over forty eight different countries. Many foreign tourists and art collectors have contributed to the enduring popularity of these Huxian paintings with over 18,700 paintings sold overseas.

Huxian was named “The County of Painting” by the Ministry of Culture in 1988. The town’s unique primitive painting style has led to it being known throughout China and abroad. More support from the Chinese state is being given to developing the styles and techniques of peasant artists. Peasant paintings are now an enriched part of folk art and its popularity continues to grow.

Huangzhong Peasant Paintings

Huangzhong is a small city in the Haidong prefecture of the Qinghai Province. It is an area rich in folk arts with many of its villagers classed as highly talented artisans. Huangzhong peasants have been creating exaggerated, creative peasant paintings since the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) Dynasties.

During the 1970’s, Huangzhong peasant paintings emerged with its own artistic style focusing on the Han and Zang cultures and its local traditions and festivities. Paintings focused on the simple aspects of peasant life such as harvesting, celebrations and home life. Peasant artisans from Huangzhong capture the essence and simplicity of rural living through bright contrasting colours and exaggerated forms. Huangzhong peasant paintings focus on the daily lives and traditions of the local peasants.

There are approximately seventy Huangzhong peasant painters who are highly regarded for their use of strong, bold colours and their exaggerated, primitive designs. Their artworks have been highly ranked in many national and international exhibitions.

This treasured folk art was added to the list of Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritages in 2006. The peasants living in Huangzhong continue to create snapshot paintings of their agricultural lifestyles for the world to enjoy.