New Year’s Prints

During the Spring Festival, which marks the new year, people hang colorful prints on doorways, walls, and other surfaces to bring good luck to their families, homes, and businesses. Among the best-known types are the Yangliuqing(yahng lee-oh ching) woodblock prints, named for a small town near Tianjin, eighty miles southeast of Beijing. The bright colors, graceful lines, and traditional subjects of the Yangliuqing print traditiona practice, skill, or talent that is passed down from generation to generation. date back to the sixteenth century. The process includes outlining, carving, printing, and applying additional color with a fine brush. It may take a group of artists forty days to complete one print. The prints may be hand-drawn or painted, or made with woodblocks or lithographs. The content of New Year’s prints usually center around four themes: the immortals and mascot, the secular life, the baby and beauty, and the story and myth, all of which are important archetypes in Chinese religion and folklore.