Traditional Chinese New
Year pictures -- always a popular folk art in rural areas -- have now become
a hot collectors item for both Chinese and foreigners.
"The woodcut New Year pictures are usually put up on windows or walls five
days before the New Year's Day to express good wishes for the coming year," said
Guo Shurong, vice curator with the Wuqiang New Year Pictures Museum in the
northern Hebei
Province.
The Wuqiang Museum has collected some of the New Year pictures and so have
British Museum and American museums, Guo said.
"Every year, we receive thousands of scholars and experts from abroad, but it
is only in recent years that the Chinese have began to appreciate New Year
pictures," said Guo.
The value of block printing
New Year pictures has been on a steady rise. In 2000, a collection of 16 New
Year pictures fetched 8,800 yuan (1,086 U.S. dollars) at auction, compared to
the base price of 3,000 yuan (370 U.S. dollars).
The pictures look simple but have to go through several complicated
procedures said Huo Qingshun, a successor of the Yangliuqing
School, one of four New Year pictures styles in China.
"There are fewer craftsman who are masters of all the skills because most of
them quit the traditional art when it was in recession after the 1980s," said
Huo. Therefore, the old New Year pictures are rare and endeared by both the
Chinese and foreign collectors, he added.
Collectors suggest people store pictures produced by famous workshops, like
the Zhuxian County of Henan
Province, Wuqiang of Hebei Province, Mianzhu of Sichuan
Province and Foshan
of Guangdong
Province. They are more valuable.
Editor: Cindy
