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Dwindling tradition on the rise again
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-06 06:26
The message in the pictures is always good luck, festivity and other positive
messages.
"New Year pictures are one of the most influential forms of traditional
Chinese folk art," says Xu Zhenshi, deputy director of the Chinese New Year
Pictures Art Association.
"They are symbolic of Chinese New Year culture and also an essential carrier
of Chinese folk culture and folk aesthetics."
New Year pictures are produced in all regions of China with different local
characteristics. The three leading producers are located in Yangliuqing Village,
near the northern port city of Tianjin, Taohuawu Village near the eastern scenic
city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and Yangjiabu Village near the eastern city of
Weifang, Shandong Province.
In villages north of the Yellow River in North China's Shanxi Province, the
most popular of the New Year pictures are called pingyang, with its centre of
creation in Old Pingyang, or today's Linfen city.
However, the production of Chinese New Year pictures has been declining since
the 1980s and traditional folk arts have been losing ground.
"Today, people in China have more options to decorate
their homes than ever before and they can turn to oil paintings or traditional
Chinese paintings, as an alternative New Year pictures," says Luo Shuwei, a research fellow with the Tianjin Academy of
Social Sciences, when enunciating the recession of New Year pictures.
But some experts and veteran New Year picture masters attribute the reason to
a shortage of young qualified successors, which makes it hard to pass down the
unique, traditional art to the younger generation.
"There's a dearth of young craftsmen," says Guo Shurong, deputy curator of
the New Year Pictures Museum in Wuqiang County, another well-known producer in
north China's Hebei Province.
In January, China Post issued a series of four stamps
with Wuqiang New Year pictures as the main theme.
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