A Brief Introduction to Chinese New Year Prints
In China, New Year print is a decorative folk art form, deeply rooted in the taste and preoccupations of common people; their social significance cannot be ignored. For centuries people loved New Year prints for their busy and compact composition, their loud and eye-catching colors, their handsomely delineated figures, and for their auspicious themes. More important is that the topics of New Year prints reflected the wishes of the people, and that their content matched the people’s mindsets.
New Year prints evolved from Lunar New Year celebration practices over the centuries. One can trace their origins to the nature worship and pantheistic beliefs of ancient times. During the Ming dynasty, the popularity of illustrations in printed novels and folkstories grew apace, giving great impetus to the development of New Year print. The design, printing, purchase, and posting of New Year prints gradually became part of the festive and decorative activities leading up to the celebration of the New Year.
New Year print reached its zenith in the Qing dynasty. The era of the Kangxi and the Qianlong emperors, a period of peace and prosperity, provided the environment for the flourishing of the New Year prints. The immensely popular folk novels at the time offered the many print ateliers with an abundant material from which to create New Year prints. There are two major characteristics of New Year prints of the early Qing dynasty. In terms of subject, there was frequent thematic use of historical events, myths, legends, and figures from folk stories and epic novels. In terms of expression, techniques of perspective and chiaroscuro (light and shadow) began to be applied as a result of the influence of Western style painting introduced by Ricci, Castiglione, and others. New Year prints thus became a channel through which Western ideas came to the East.
During the late Qing period, the internal turmoil and the external pressures on China increased, creating the most complicated social conditions in modern Chinese history. New Year print was the art form that reflected these turbulent issues most quickly. The end of the Qing and the beginning of the Republican period was the last phase of popularity for this art. During these years, news and current affairs were depicted in the New Year prints; using a traditional form to express social conditions and news. This was an innovation rare among other arts. Because these New Year prints reflect the history and folk customs of their times, the prints from this period are especially valued and highly regarded by researchers.