Woodblock Print

For Chinese people

Spring Festival can be related to

great feast

brand new clothes

and various intangible cultural heritages that convey the new year essence

We would like to introduce you

those cultural heritages themed with the Lunar New Year

Woodblock New Year Paintings

Woodblock new year printing is a traditional folk art form with a long history of more than a thousand years in China. In the mid to late Qing Dynasty, folk New Year paintings reached their heyday. In Chinese folklore, New Year paintings are the symbol of the New Year, and it is one of  the must-done during the Lunar New Year. For the Chinese people, the strongest flavor of the year began with hanging the Spring Festival couplets, the Door Gods printing and woodblock prints. New Year paintings are no longer the decorative items for festivals, but the cultural and artistic  medium that reflect the social life of Chinese folklore.

New Year paintings are based on secular social life with a wide range of themes, including historical stories, myths and legends, secular life, scenic spots, news, flowers, birds, insects and fish, and auspicious celebrations.

Fengxiang County, located in the western part of Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi Province, is a well-known woodblock printing production area in China. Before the second year of Emperor Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, there were eight households of the Tai family engaged in the production of New Year paintings, which have been passed down for 20 generations. Fengxiang woodblock printing is known for hand-carved woodblock, partially hand-painted artwork, and the iconic gold and silver color, it reflects strong color contrasts and exaggerated shapes, also preserves the ancient and natural artistic style of woodblock prints. This traditional folk art has been popular in Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and Sichuan provinces for hundreds of years.

Nowadays, woodblock new year printing has evolved and innovated with the times, but still with the fundamentals of the tradition. It comes with more patterns and thematic works, and its popularity enables the general public to have hands-on experiences.

Sites to check out for hands-on experiences

Chang'an Intangible Cultural Heritage Town 

Beilin District Cultural Center of Xi'an