Spiritual Enjoyment

To allay one's hunger by drawing a pancake is a Chinese proverb, which suggests that things spiritual are no substitute for the tangible. However, in real life people often resort to spiritual appeasement. In old China, for example, no matter how penniless they were, poor people would buy a picture of the Door God to post on their door, in order to ward off debt collectors. Those who wanted children would buy the picture depicting Kylin (the Chinese unicorn) Offering a Son. Scholars might buy a picture suggesting officialdom, but every family would have pictures of the God of Wealth and the Kitchen God, since money and food were common concerns.

Beautiful women have always been a popular motif in traditional Chinese paintings, and this is also true of Taohuawu New Year pictures. Tang Yin was believed to be the best painter of the female form, and folk artists from Taohuawu are also skilled in this respect. Like traditional Chinese paintings, Taohuawu woodblock engravings celebrate formal Oriental beauty. They portray exquisite females, with the oval faces, pointed chins, fine, arched eyebrows, almond shaped eyes, straight noses and small mouths considered as features typifying classic Oriental beauty, clad in sophisticated and gorgeous costumes.

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