Gao Lamei

01 · Lineage & Regional School

She learned the craft from her husband, Zhong Haixian. Within the regional tradition and school record of Tantou Woodblock New Year Pictures in Longhui, Hunan: Tantou woodblock New Year prints are the only hand-made woodblock water-printed New Year prints in Hunan Province, forming a school of their own with a strong local character of southern Chu. In the early 20th century, the production of Tantou woodblock New Year prints reached its height, with 108 New Year print workshops and an annual output of more than 30 million copies, sold to the provinces south of the Yangtze and to Southeast Asia. After 1949, Tantou woodblock New Year prints were banned as feudal superstition; production resumed in 1958, was devastated once again after 1966, and resumed again in 1979. In 1984, Tantou Town was named a "Hometown of Modern Chinese Folk Painting" by the Ministry of Culture. In 1994, Tantou woodblock New Year prints received the Silver Prize of "Unparalleled Excellence of Chinese Folk Art" from the Ministry of Culture.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The eyeshadow, eyebrow shading and beard lines she painted have a three-dimensional quality with clearly distinguished layers, and her figures are lifelike. Her use of such special processes as steaming the paper, mounting with glue, brushing on powder and opening the face was exactly judged, so that the New Year pictures she produced were not only more brilliant in colour but also had a relief-like artistic effect. Within the documented technical tradition of Tantou Woodblock New Year Pictures in Longhui, Hunan: Tantou Town is located in the southeast of Longhui County, Hunan Province. Its folkways are simple and honest and its customs distinctive; historically there appeared papermaking villages, carving villages, lanes for colored paper, decorative paper, and fragrant powder paper, and a New Year print street. Its handicraft industry was highly developed, with a clear division of labor and mutual coordination among the trades. Tantou has had a strong shamanic atmosphere since ancient times, and folk sacrificial activities were very popular. The many varieties of paper-horse (zhima) effigies used in sacrifices have an internal transmission relationship with the production techniques of the later Tantou woodblock New Year prints. According to the Longhui County Gazetteer, Tantou woodblock New Year prints have a history of more than three hundred years; according to folk oral historical materials, the first woodblock New Year print workshop in Tantou was established in the late Ming and early Qing by Wang Dongyuan, nicknamed "Wang Houzi" (Monkey Wang), which printed more than ten kinds of New Year prints, including "Qin Shubao" and "Yuchi Gong." During the Daoguang reign, Hu Qifu opened the "Heshunchang" New Year print workshop, adding new designs such as "The Brotherhood of the Peach Garden." During the Tongzhi reign, Tantou woodblock New Year prints were already sold throughout the country. In 2003, at China's First Grand Exhibition of Cultural Relic Replicas and Folk Arts and Crafts, Tantou woodblock New Year prints won the Gold Prize for Traditional Chinese Arts and Crafts. All the process steps of Tantou woodblock New Year prints, from papermaking to the finished product, are completed locally in Tantou, forming a complete production series — something rather rare in New Year print production nationwide. Traditional Tantou woodblock New Year prints comprise more than forty varieties, divided into three main categories: door-god portraits, auspicious themes, and opera stories. In the craft of Tantou woodblock New Year prints, the traditional process steps of steaming the paper, sizing with glue, and brushing on powder are all unique to Tantou, and "facial finishing" (kailian) is also a distinctive technique that sets it apart from New Year prints of other places. The difficulty of block-making in Tantou woodblock New Year prints lies in the carving of the line blocks; in this respect the "steep-knife upright line" (doudao lixian) technique of the "Gaofuchang" New Year print workshop is famous. Its knife angle is uniform, an even hidden force is applied, turns and crossings are handled steadily without disorder, and the whole relies entirely on feel and technical mastery. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Archival Record of the Working Procedures": All the process steps of Tantou woodblock New Year prints, from papermaking to the finished product, are completed locally in Tantou, forming a complete production series — something rather rare in New Year print production nationwide.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Female, Han ethnicity, born in December 1933, died in December 2014, a native of Longhui County, Hunan Province. A representative bearer of Tantou woodblock New Year pictures, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Her works won a gold award at the First China Exhibition of Reproductions of Cultural Relics and Folk Handicrafts sponsored by the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, and The Mouse Marries a Bride won a silver award at the First China Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the People's Government of Shandong Province.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Gao Lamei · National Representative Bearer Archive