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| Old paintings have fresh outlook |
| CCTV.COM 2004-01-14 14:01:02 |
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New Year's paintings have long been a popular folk art form in many rural areas of China. Zongjia Village in Qingdao, Shandong province is home to many representative wood－cut New Year's paintings. They come in various forms and styles, many featuring simple strokes and bright colors.
The Head of Zongjia Village, Zong Chengyun, is a New Year's painting master. He excels at making cut blocks and printings. He began printing New Year's paintings from the age of seven. At that time, almost all of the villagers created their own New Year's paintings. But by 1997, only dozens of families were still in the business.
Since the business has been declining, some short－sighted villagers began selling the precious printing plates. Zong Chengyun began borrowing money to buy back all of the old plates. He printed 60 paintings for tourists gifts and began promoting them on the world market.
Most of the Zongjia Village New Years' paintings are folk art figures or other decorative paintings. To enrich the content of the paintings, villagers have been inviting professionals to help them design modern New Year's paintings, such as Peking opera facial masks as well as depictions of historical stories. They now have more hope their own folk art will once again flourish in the future.
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Editor: Sun Weichao CCTV.com
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