New Year's Wood Block Paintings in Nanxiaoli struggles to survive

New Year's wood block paintings are a type of picture pasted on walls and doors during Spring Festival, the most important traditional Chinese festival. In the past, as the Spring Festival approached, every family would clean its rooms and courtyards and paste New Year's wood block paintings on the windows, doors, walls, and stoves and in the Buddha niches to add to the New Year atmosphere, and at the same time, to seek good luck in the coming year.

Nowadays, under the attack of modern color printing , wood block paintings are gradually losing their market and can survive only in the corner where the modern printing cannot reach. And Nanxiaoli (a place in Guanzhong) is one place.

Wood block paintings in Nanxiaoli combine the characteristics of sculpture in Qin, Han, Tang, and Song dynasties (collectively from 221BC-1279AD) and fully displays the bold and unrestrained features belonging only to the northwest of China. It embodies the skills of embroidery and paper cutting. It emphasizes facial expressions and has been popular among the villages in the northwest.

All rights reserved. Reproduction of text for non-commercial purposes is permitted provided that both the source and author are acknowledged and a notifying email is sent to us.