Fengxiang New Year Posters

Fengxiang County, situated in the Shaanxi Province, is well known for its amazing and vivid New Year Woodprints. Full of vibrant colours and festive designs, Fengxiang New Year posters are popular souvenirs and gifts representing the traditions of the Chinese New Year.

The tradition of printing New Year posters from woodblocks first came to Fengxiang in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It is believed that Fengxiang New Year posters were first made by the Tai family in Nanxiaoli of Fengxiang County. By the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) there were a large number of workshops within the area specializing in engraving, printing and selling New Year woodprints.

After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Fengxiang New Year posters were on the edge of extinction. In 1978 a third generation of the Shixing Poster Workshop called Tai Yi, created the Feng Yi New Year Posters Society. The society aimed towards reviving the traditional folk art and recreating destroyed posters. With help from the society, Fengxiang New Year Posters have continued to flourish and are still distributed throughout China and in many other countries.

A Research Association was established after the Cultural Revolution which has helped boost the number of people currently skilled in making Fengxiang New Year Posters. Each year, the Fengxiang New Year poster industry produces over ten million posters.

Each Fengxiang New Year woodblock is handmade and features the local styles and flavour of the Fengxiang County. The exaggerated and primitive images on the posters reflect the traditional styles of other folk arts and crafts including paper cutting and Chinese painting. Red, green, yellow and purple are the main bold colours used to create the vivid and striking images.

There are a number of steps which most craftsmen follow when creating Fengxiang New Year posters. The sky and land is first printed. Then all red elements are added to the poster. Then the colours are added in order depending on the brightness of the colour. Lastly, the black outline is placed around the images. Common pictures include door gods, flowers, birds and images of the Chinese New Year festivities.

Fengxiang New Year posters have been exhibited in many museums as examples of Chinese traditional New Year prints. In 2006, Fengxiang New Year posters were listed among the first group of traditional arts and crafts to be added to the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Tai Yu and Tai Liping from the Fengxiang and Shaanxi provinces were also listed among the 226 representative heirs of the National Intangible Cultural Heritages.

With support from various organizations and the Shaanxi government, Fengxiang New Year posters have developed into a cherished Chinese traditional folk art which continues to be a thriving industry for the county.