New Year picture

The origins of the "New Year picture" are unknown, although the genre is thought to have begun with the printing of door gods during the Tang dynasty.

The best known production sites include Yangliuqing (Tianjin), Yangjiabu (Shandong), Wuqiang (Hebei), Fengxiang (Shaanxi), Taohuawu (Suzhou), and Mianzhu (Sichuan).

Although there are few reliable records on which to base the early history of New Year pictures, Wang Shucun argues that they were popularized during the Ming dynasty.

[3] and the development of large-scale production and marketing through New Year picture workshops (Chinese: 畫坊) (Pinyin:Huà fāng).

During the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance the Chinese Communist Party realized the propaganda potential of "peasant art" and began to promote "New New Year pictures".

Following the Cultural Revolution efforts were made to recover New Year pictures as a heritage industry, and workshops can now be found in most of the larger production centers.

These traditional techniques survive in the present day, although most New Year pictures are now produced through chromolithography and color offset printing.