Woodblock New Year Pictures
01 · Historical Records
Laohekou New Year prints have a long history; according to tradition they were introduced from Suzhou's Taohuawu via Zhuxian Town in Henan at the end of the Ming dynasty, and their period of flourishing was from the Qianlong to the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty. By the Republican era, Laohekou New Year prints still employed more than a thousand workers across more than a dozen print workshops, including Songchangfu, Liuyuansheng, Demaogong, and Wanyuanyong, each producing around 100,000 prints a year, with products sold as far as Hubei, Henan, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Laohekou New Year prints are a kind of Chinese folk New Year print, one of the main forms of the traditional folk art of Laohekou City, Hubei Province, and one of the three major New Year print producing areas in Hubei's history. They later declined gradually with the rise of lithography and modern printing. In the 1950s Laohekou established a woodcarving factory, organizing local woodblock New Year print artists to continue producing woodblock prints and woodcarvings. The blocks of Laohekou woodblock New Year prints are cut from hard pear wood, with fine, fluent carving and bold, vigorous lines. The pigments used in printing are plant and mineral colors, bright and not prone to fading. Common varieties include kitchen-god prints, large and small door pictures, central-hall pictures, and sets of hanging screens. The subjects of Laohekou New Year prints are mostly drawn from historical dramas and legend stories, with vivid, exaggerated figural modeling.
Taohuawu to Zhuxianzhen to Laohekou
Brought in the late Ming from Suzhou via Zhuxianzhen, Laohekou's prints carry southern layout with a Henan accent.
The four workshops
By the Republican era more than a thousand hands worked in a dozen or more workshops, each turning out about a hundred thousand prints a year for four provinces.
Pear-wood blocks and vegetable and mineral colour
Blocks are cut from hard pear wood with bold lines; the colours are vegetable and mineral based and hold their brightness, in forms ranging from stove pictures to scrolls.
Chen Yiwen and the full process
Chen Yiwen commands drafting, cutting and printing; since the 1980s his work has shown in national exhibitions and toured Australia, Russia and Korea.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Laohekou woodblock New Year prints are one of the main forms of the traditional folk art of Laohekou City, Hubei Province, and one of the three major New Year print producing areas in Hubei's history. Their history is said to begin with transmission from Suzhou's Taohuawu via Zhuxian Town in Henan at the end of the Ming dynasty, with the Qianlong to Guangxu reigns of the Qing dynasty as their flourishing period; by the Republican era, Laohekou New Year prints still employed more than a thousand workers across more than a dozen print workshops, including Songchangfu, Liuyuansheng, Demaogong, and Wanyuanyong, each producing around 100,000 prints a year, with products sold as far as Hubei, Henan, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, Laohekou woodblock New Year prints also face a lack of successors and need support and protection. Chen Yiwen (record from the official inheritor archive): Male, Han ethnicity, born in March 1929, from Sheqi County, Henan Province. He is familiar with the entire print production process, from design drawing to carving and printing. Since the 1980s his works have repeatedly been shown in national- and provincial-level exhibitions and were sent to exhibitions in Australia, Russia, South Korea, and other countries. He is a representative inheritor of woodblock New Year prints (Laohekou woodblock New Year prints), a fourth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. In 1990 he received an honorary certificate from the Ministry of Light Industry for “thirty years of service in the arts and crafts industry and contributions to the cause of arts and crafts”; in 2011 he received the Special Contribution Award for the Rescue and Protection of Chinese Woodblock New Year Prints from the China Folk Literature and Art Association; and in 2013 he was granted the title of Hubei Master of Folk Craft Skill Transmission by the Organization Department of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee and the Hubei Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Han Jianfeng 04-1808
- Chen Yiwen 04-1809
- Luan Xikui 05-2677
- Zhao Guoqi
- Zhang Rongqiang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。