Nian Hua: New Year pictures from China
Military door gods holding swords.
An exhibition now on at the National Library's Auckland Centre showcases examples of Chinese New Year pictures. Called Nianhua (年画) in Mandarin, they are an important form of folk art that has been very popular in China for many years.
As New Year approaches, people paste fresh New Year pictures in the Buddha niches of their houses, and on gates, windows, doors, walls and stoves to help enhance the New Year atmosphere and to seek good luck in the coming year.
Themes of New Year pictures include religious and secular, from door gods to mascots, and from opera scenes to babies and beauties.
Baby arriving on the back of a Kylin (Chinese mythological animal - symbolises prosperity and offspring)
The earliest door god pictures appeared in the Han Dynasty (206BC—220AD), but the present form of New Year pictures were not produced until the Tang Dynasty (618—907 AD). The earliest known use of the term “Nianhua” is in a book written by Li Guangting during the reign of Emperor Daoguang (1820—1850 AD) in the Qing Dynasty.
New Year pictures were produced using a range of methods, including woodblock, stone-block and offset printing, watercolour painting and sketching. Woodblock prints have been the most popular of all the methods used.
In the middle and late periods of the Qing Dynasty, woodblock New Year pictures became so popular that large picture workshops and stores were opened in many provinces throughout China. Zhuxianzhen in Henan Province, Yangjiabu in Shandong Province, Taohuawu in Jiangsu Province and Yangliuqing in Tianjin Province were known as the “Four Master Towns of New Year Pictures” due to their scale of production, high quality and distinctive characteristics.
In this exhibition, masterpieces were selected from the collection of thousands of woodblock New Year pictures curated and kindly loaned to the National Library of New Zealand by the National Library of China.
Opens 11 December | 10am - 6pm Monday to Friday | National Library, Auckland Centre, 8 Stanley St, Parnell
A collaboration between the National Library, National Library of China and SkyKiwi.
Visit the online resources in our Chinese New Year HIgh Interest Topic.