CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Tuesday, February 9, 2021 | 19 CELEBRATING SPRING FESTIVAL
{TO OUR READERS} Welcoming Year of the Ox Reunions with loved ones. Banquets with traditional delicacies. Temple fairs. TV galas. Red envelopes. Folk paintings, red papercuts and auspicious couplets framing doorways. Dragons and lions dance, as fireworks frighten away the maneating demon, Nian, whose name is the same Chinese character as the word “year”. And the 12 zodiac creatures — each with their own characteristics — take turns reigning over their respective years, swapping seats at the head table as the Lunar New Year dawns. As the Year of the Ox approaches, China Daily takes a deeper look at the history and evolution of the country’s most festive of festivals.
Indeed, the 15day celebration is a time to reconnect have lasted for millennia, in either purely traditional or with roots, from the level of visiting family in people’s somewhat updated form. And no small number is associ hometowns to reaffirming Chinese cultural identity ated with the dinner table, such as dining on dumplings across the globe, especially among the diaspora. Wherev on Lunar New Year’s Eve. Until modern times, it was often er people of Chinese heritage are found, Spring Festival is the one meal a year when many people in the countryside celebrated. And a growing number of nonChinese would enjoy meat. around the world are not only learning more about but As the Year of the Mouse draws to an end, Chinese also actively participating in this joyous occasion. around the country and world are preparing to celebrate Each day contains its own traditions, many of which another trip around the sun, as measured by the moon.
people’s pursuit for happiness,” says Shen Hong, a Hubeibased veteran collector and researcher of New Year paintings. “Many historical figures standing A chip for mental power appear in the paint ings,” he continues. “They are com posed of a system of cultural codes that can be easily understood by Chi nese people … and urge people to behave well and be honest.” Before Spring Festival in 2019, a off the threeyear project was initiated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to revitalize the craft of the Chinese New Year paintings. Then, wodsy.com, which is affiliated to the ministry, began a comprehensive survey, recording the state of the aging art old block form across the country. Thanks to the project, more people have come to realize the urgency of A fifthgeneration artisan from Hubei province revitalizing the traditional craftsman is working hard to keep the craft of traditionally ship of woodcutprinted New Year paintings. printed New Year paintings alive, The move, however, came just a lit Wang Kaihao reports. tle too late for two titans of the craft. Shortly after Spring Festival in 2019, Chen Hongbin’s widely venerated s Spring Festival nears, Time and technology has taken its grandfather, Chen Yiwen, who was Chen Hongbin prepares for toll on the craft, though. With people’s also a nationallevel inheritor of the busiest time of his year. changing lifestyles and the introduc intangible cultural heritage, died at Deftly manipulating a tion to China of industrialized print the age of 90. Chen Hongbin works on woodblockprinted paintings in his studio in carvingA knife, the 43yearold man ing processes, Chen’s workshop is now In similarly sad news from Suzhou, Laohekou, Hubei province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY from Laohekou, a countylevel city in the only surviving traditional wood Jiangsu province, home to Taohuawu, Xiangyang, Hubei province, is block print studio in Laohekou. another key woodblock print hub, immersed in the craftsmanship of his In China, the hanging of New Year around the same time that the project work. The woodblock prints, which paintings with auspicious patterns or was launched, master artisan Fang duplicate auspicious New Year paint patron deities on doors is a key Spring Zhida passed away at the age of 83. ings, have become his way of welcom Festival ritual to hope for prosperity in Chen Hongbin understands that the ing another year. the new year. common difficulty facing many tradi “Local people here recognize them According to Li Zhenyu, a fine arts tional art forms is that the practition as cultural icons,” says Chen proudly. professor from Sichuan University, ers and craftsmen are aging, which is “They still ‘invite’ these paintings into Chinese New Year paintings can be what drives his strong determination their home for Spring Festival. It’s a dated back to the Han Dynasty (206 to persist. tradition. BCAD 220) when “But those printed by machines are a pair of images more often seen today than my hand depicting the dei New Year paintings were one made ones,” he laments. “What I’m ties Shenshu and of the most widely circulated running is not a big operation.” Yulyu appeared After all, compared with massive on doors to ward forms of media in ancient China. machine rollouts, a handmade New off evil spirits. They reveal Chinese people’s Year painting will take at least a The variation in ‘pursuit‘ for happiness.” month to make, starting with the carv themes and imag The National Art Museum of China hosts an exhibition of Yangliuqing New ing of the blocks. ery grew more Shen Hong, veteran collector and researcher Year paintings in January 2017. JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY Chen and his wife run a home work abundant when shop. Learning the craft from his the secular lives grandfather, he is the fifthgeneration of people during the Tang (618907) Chen Hongbin says he has regularly researcher with Suzhou Art and promote the print art more effectively artisan in the family, who’s devoting and Song (9601279) dynasties fueled taught the techniques of woodcut print Design Technology Institute, where and to a wider audience.” his life to woodblock prints. the influence of Buddhist art on the ing in local elementary schools. He is the Taohuawu society is now based. For the festival season, the Ministry Laohekou woodcut New Year paint craft. also frequently invited to deliver lec Images of children, for instance, are of Culture and Tourism launched a ing was inscribed onto the nationallev “Animals, warriors, figures from the tures on the New Year painting genre at seen in almost every New Year painting nationwide project that refers to el intangible cultural heritage list in literati and many more images began universities in Wuhan, capital of Hubei genre in China, and in Cheng’s eyes, streaming media, short videosharing 2011. to appear,” Li explains. “The paintings province. that represents the power of life bloom platforms and live broadcasts of tradi According to Chen, its history can stood for not only religious beliefs, but “Only when an appreciation and ing and the harmony of yin and yang. tional Spring Festival celebrations be dated back to the Ming Dynasty also common wishes in our collective admiration of the tradition is passed Hao Qinyu, a director from around China. (13681644), when massive construc psychology.” down to younger generations, can the wodsy.com, the organization in charge About 160 intangible cultural heri tion of Taoist temples was initiated in During the Ming Dynasty, when col New Year paintings continue to of the threeyear project, points out that tage items are chosen for the project, the nearby Wudang Mountains, now a orful woodblock prints were common thrive,” he says. revival of the New Year paintings now and Laohekou’s New Year painting is UNESCO World Heritage site. Arti ly used in people’s daily lives, the He is glad that his two teenage chil has greater psychological significance. among them. sans came from all over the country, development of New Year paintings dren have also shown an interest in “As always, the painting has repre The conservation center for intangi bringing their crafts with them. was also greatly propelled. the craft and that he will possibly be sented people’s best wishes for a good ble cultural heritage in Laohekou has When talking about woodblock “They evolved into a carrier for the able to pass on his torch in the future. life, which includes the fight against cooperated with video platforms, such printing, for many in China, it is the aesthetics, and finally, our under There are new methods being the pandemic,” she says. “They pro as Douyin — known as TikTok outside Yangliuqing New Year paintings from standing of Spring Festival,” Li says. implemented in a bid to raise aware vide us strong emotional and spiritual China — and Kuaishou, to introduce Tianjin that will come to mind first. Sometimes, they also bear the col ness of the paintings among younger strength.” the art form. More importantly, for However, unlike the Yangliuqing lective memory of history. people. In Taohuawu, for example, a Recalling Spring Festival last year, a many local people who cannot return products, in which artisans add some Xiangyang was a strategically pivot local society for New Year paintings tough time when Hubei province was to their hometown for Spring Festival color to the pictures with a brush after al city during the Three Kingdoms has cooperated with online games the epicenter of China’s COVID19 out due to efforts to contain the spread of the printing process is done, all of the (220280), when different warlords companies to design into their prod break, Chen Hongbin is happy to be COVID19, it is also a way of tapping colors in Laohekou paintings are were embroiled in various bloody ucts some typical patterns associated enjoying a more upbeat Chinese New their sense of nostalgia and easing applied by printing. feuds. Wartime legends from that time with the paintings. Year celebration this year. their homesickness. “A painting needs to be printed sev compose a key theme in Laohekou’s “Chinese people are influenced by “Though requirement to contain It is, perhaps, a nostalgia that eral times, with the wooden blocks New Year paintings. the philosophies and values, which the virus means I still cannot go to belongs to all Chinese people. having to be dyed in a different color “New Year paintings were one of the have been passed down for genera many New Year fairs and exhibitions each time,” Chen explains. “It is a far most widely circulated forms of media tions by the paintings, but we don’t as I would normally, I have new Contact the writer at more complicated process.” in ancient China. They reveal Chinese usually realize it,” says Cheng Ying, a online channels through which I can [email protected]