The Arts
Representative Works of Chinese Woodblock New Year Paintings
by Feng Jicai
Woodblock new year painting is an old handicraft of China, going back thousands of years. People celebrate the Spring Festival by posting up woodblock new year paintings, praying for their good wishes. Chief edited by the contemporary Chinese author, artist, and cultural scholar Feng Jicai, the Representative Works of Chinese Woodblock New Year Paintings is a collection of the masterpieces selected out of over ten thousand woodblock new year paintings. It has two volumes, the Northern and the Southern, from which one can see the differences in the custom of the two regions. The book has received support from scholars and institutions worldwide, among which the Japanese museums' collections of Gusu woodblock new year paintings in the early Qing Dynasty and the Russian museums' collections of late Qing and early Republic China are disclosed to the world for the first time. So the book is not only a historical art collection, but also of high cultural heritage significance.
