Visitors pretend to be in an opera role before asking their peers to take their picture.[Photo/ pgm.org.cn]

New Year Paintings of China, part of the productive protection activities of China National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) program, made its debut at the Prince Kung’s Palace Museum (PKPM) in Beijing on March 30.

Themed "Stories in the Paintings", the traditional paintings exhibition sets out to reflect the Chinese style of national paintings and aesthetic standards among Chinese people.

The exhibition collects fine works from their origins: Weifang in Eastern China’s Shandong province, Pingyang in North China’s Shanxi province, Suzhou in East China’s Jiangsu province, Huaxian in Central China’s Henan province and Tianjin municipality.

It is worthwhile to notice that Xinjiang’s New Year’s paintings in Shanxi province, manuscripts of Huaxian’s New Year’s paintings and Suqi’s lantern paintings in Henan province have all been made available to the public for the first time.