Study Of Wuqiang Woodblock Year Picture

In China,no other day is more celebrated than the Chinese new year.People welcome the new year with all kinds of different traditional celebrations when the new year is near.Year-picture is one of those traditions.People put up the year-pictures on doors,windows and walls to enhance the holiday atmosphere and best wishes for the new year.Year-picture is a traditional folk art form and craft.It originated in Han dynasty and evolved over the ages,especially in Tang and Song dynasties and its popularity peaked in Ming and Qing dynasties.In the developing process,many different art forms and characteristics of year-picture emerged.The earliest year-pictures are in the form of door guardians protecting the house.As the society and people's living evolve and progress,the contents of year-pictures diversified and over 30 different themes of year-picture appeared,such as flowers,birds,natural sceneries,living customs and religious beliefs.Chinese year-pictures are produced at many locations all over the country,among the famous ones are TianJing Yangliuqing,Suzhou Taohuawu,Sichuan Mianzhu,Hebei Wuqiang.Wuqiang year-picture is very unique in terms of art characteristics.Wuqiang year-picture originated in Song or Yuan dynasty and developed in Ming and Qing dynasties.It's a traditional art craft of Wuqiang county,Hebei province.There is a strong folk art sense and local character.It's one of the excellent traditional folk art crafts representing art culture of Hebei due to its unique art style.Wuqiang year-picture is full of cultural heritage of the local people.It represents people's customs and best wishes for a wonderful life.This thesis is an effort to preserve the essence of this wonderful art form and to show people its value as an art form.Although nowadays year-pictures are fading away from most people's lives,the essence of the art lives on.Wuqiang year-picture is still studied by many experts and researchers due to its unique form and characters.This thesis studied this art through literature reviews,comparisons,interviews and operation demonstrations.We utilized books,newspaper,periodicals and internet to collect information on Wuqiang year-picture theme,form and art characters,also on its inheritance and protection.We compared and analyzed the characters of Wuqiang year-picture with ones from other regions.We site visited Wuqiang year-picture museum,interviewed the inheritor and watched the process of making the Wuqiang year-pictures,and learnt its orig:in and developing history.We have a deeper understanding of its art characteristics and the importance of the heritage and protection of National Intangible Cultural Heritages in general.During this visit,we interviewed the inheritor,Jianming Qi,who was the head of Wuqiang department of culture affairs and the head of Wuqiang year-picture museum.He attended numerous domestic and international conferences to promote Wuqiang year-picture as well as local folk arts.He contributed a lot to Wuqiang year-picture's reputation and name recognition,both domestically and internationally.In the Wuqiang year-picture museum,we also learnt the process of making the year-picture.The extensiveness and profoundness of Wuqiang year-picture truly left me a deep impression.Through collection and analysis of year-picture materials and documents,combined with visits and interviews,we learnt a lot about Wuqiang year-picture current innovation and development status.As time progresses and technologies advance,artists made inovations in the makings of year-pictures,strongly re:flecting humanity philosophy and artistic presentation.As an artifact with unique characters and culture,it is protected and promoted as heritage by ordinary people as well as government.As an important carrier of propagation of year-picture,Wuqiang woodblock year-picture printing integrated many traditional and modern artistic methods to enrich the forms and contents of year-picture,reflecting its value as an art form and its capability of keeping the pace with the times.This is recognized by artists from both domestically and internationally.In recent years,many experts studied the traditional crafts of year-pictures,and promoted them through various channels.Some of the products were sold as handcrafts as far as Southeast Asia.This thesis discusses the status of the inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage in general through the study the development and current status of year-picture.We hope further discuss the means of intangible cultural heritage protection,promote Chinese culture and its integration into that of the world as a whole.