There are several New Year picture genres in China. Besides Yangliuqing, there are also those based in Mianzhu, Sichuan Province, Wuqiang, Hebei Province, Zhuxianzhen, Henan Province and Taohuawu in Jiangsu Province.

Of all those, Yangliuqing New Year pictures boast the best-preserved and largest stock of high quality vintage woodblocks and sketches by artisans from centuries ago, according to Wang Shucun, the most influential scholar in the field.

In the history of the past 400 years, the folk art of Yangliuqing nianhua enjoyed its heyday in the Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, according to Zhang Yingxue, now in his late 80s and a local cultural official who has contributed a lot to the preservation of the art.

"But it declined sharply at the turn of the last century and was pushed to the brink of extinction in the early 1940s," said Zhang during his visit to the Beijing exhibition.

Between 1949 and 1953, Zhang, then head of the local cultural bureau, led an investigation into the situation of the folk art, visiting ageing artisans, taking photos and notes and purchasing some of their nianhua works.

In late 1953, Zhang and his team organized training courses for some 30 young farmers who were interested in learning the folk art and invited veteran artists such as Pan Zhongyi and Zhang Jingchun to give lectures and performances.

In 1954, Zhang helped establish the Tianjin Fine Arts Press Co-operative with both private investment from folk artists and cash from New Year pictures studios and public funds.

Later, the Tianjin Yangliuqing Fine Arts Studio was opened. Between the late 1950s and early 1960s, the studio produced 2 million woodblock New Year pictures annually, Zhang said.

It was a time when the pictures were an important cultural product most locals bought to decorate doors, windows, lamps, walls and even furniture during the Spring Festival.

Zhang also headed up the planning of a Yangliuqing New Year Pictures Museum. Although the museum was never built, Zhang and his team collected invaluable relics including sketches, old pictures and numerous sets of ready-made woodblocks.

They gathered stories from older generations of folk artists and their tools, files about distribution networks and the sales accounts of Yangliuqing nianhua pictures of private studios.

Zhang recalled that some folk artists, such as Yin Qingshan, refused to accept money from his team and instead donated their beloved works to the never-built museum.

Yin donated 358 sets of his delicately carved woodblocks. Another Yangliuqing master Dai Shaochen donated 385 sets of woodblocks, among which are the creations of older generations of artists.

Sadly, Zhang said, the preservation work was interrupted during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), when many ancient woodblocks and nianhua pictures were destroyed for they were deemed to project archaic images.

In 1979, the Tianjin Yangliuqing Fine Arts Studio was renamed the Tianjin Yangliuqing Fine Arts Press. It is an institution capable of producing and selling Yangliuqing nianhua, training artisans, and publishing related books, albums and souvenirs.

It encompasses almost all the living masters of the art in China, said Zhang.

(China Daily May 27, 2005)