An old saying about New Year paintings goes: "There's a peach in the south and a willow in the north." The "willow" is Tianjin's Yangliuqing area.

But Taohuawu Woodcut New Year Pictures Society head Hua Lijing reveals regret when recalling the neighborhood's past glory.

Woodblock carver and national-level inheritor of intangible cultural heritage Fang Zhida passed away in December. He was 83.

"We'd just finished detailed digital recordings of Fang and several other elderly inheritors' working processes and other relevant information," Hua says.

"It was a timely rescue. I hope Fang can rest in peace without worrying about the technique's survival."

The society on the Suzhou Art & Design Technology Institute's campus has worked to ensure Taohuawu woodcut prints didn't disappear after the master artisan passed away.

Taohuawu's prints are distinct from Yangliuqing's in that artisans don't paint them after printing. This makes designing and producing the blocks more complicated.

The woodcut print genre dates to the early Ming Dynasty, when Suzhou's economy soared. The city at one point contributed 12 percent of the nation's tax revenue.