Traditional printing art struggles amid rise of modern techniques

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Pictures and symbols for New Year are widely used in China during Spring Festival. They are traditionally printed with woodblocks, but the production has now been taken over by modern machines.

The tradition, however, is still alive at its birthplace – a town called Zhuxian in central China’s Henan Province.

Zhang Jizhong, who inherited the craft that is listed as a national cultural heritage, said New Year pictures are derived from Chinese folklore, and they often portray gods with virtues reflecting wishes of people for the coming year.

Zhang Jizhong briefs a reporter on a picture printed with a Qing Dynasty woodblock. /CGTN Photo

Traditional woodblock printing is a meticulous job involving several significant processes, including sketching, wood engraving and inking.

The pictures are first printed with black, other colors are added later with different woodblocks.

New Year woodblock printmaking in Zhuxian Town originated in the Song Dynasty, Zhang said, adding that during its peak time, there were over 300 workshops selling tens of millions of woodcut prints annually.

To save the art from the brink of extinction, Zhang started in 1998 compiling literature on the town’s New Year prints, interviewing folk artists on the development timeline of the craft and the stories behind the pictures.

Four years later, he published a book offering a comprehensive understanding of the traditional craft in Zhuxian.

A child learns to paint a New Year picture in Zhang Jizhong’s shop. /CGTN Photo

New Year prints in the town have once again become an industry after receiving government support.

Zhang Jizhong is now producing a series of animations that tell the stories of the New Year woodblock prints, hoping that the values portrayed in traditional New Year pictures would become part of children’s education.

The old manual printing technique might be outdated, but the craft needs to be kept alive as cultural memory, Zhang noted.