Including the ritual significance of many historic nianhua.

Chapter Four, “To Build a Museum and a Village: the Race for Mianzhu’s

Nianhua Heritage” situates ritual practices within the bigger picture of the state-led

heritage industry from the mid-1990s and onward. As local and provincial authorities

turn towards staging nianhua’s “intangible cultural heritage” (ICH), state agencies move

beyond merely collecting and exhibiting historic nianhua to building nianhua tourist

attractions. To critique these developments, I respond to heritage studies that move away

from theorizing heritage as a set of tangible assets (such as objects, sites, and

monuments) and towards evaluating it as a “cultural process.” This includes Laurajane

Smith’s declaration that “heritage is not a thing” and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett’s

assertion that heritage is “metacultural production.”108 I will argue that this shift towards

interpreting heritage as a cultural process often relegates objects and sites to a passive

108 Laurajane Smith, Uses of Heritage (London: Routledge, 2006) and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,

“Intangible Heritage as Metacultural Production,” Museum International 56, no. 1-2 (May 2004): 52-65.

57

role, where meaning is simply projected or imposed upon them by human activities.

While I agree that the notion of heritage is indeed a cultural construct, the contested

objects taken up in heritage discourses need to be kept in mind and examined within the

specific cultural discourses and forms of livelihood that depend on them. The danger in

dematerializing the notion of heritage is that it risks losing sight of the dialectical

interactions between objects and practices that undergird and legitimize both the state’s

institutional claim to heritage as well as the counter claims that arise in response.

In the concluding chapter, I draw together these discussions to assess the

advantages and disadvantages of approaching nianhua as a living archive. In particular, I

comment on its implications for nuancing and demystifying nianhua’s attributed function

to “pursue the auspicious, repel the portentous” in everyday life. I also stress the key

contributions of this project to both the field of Chinese art history and to the ongoing

urbanization of Mianzhu and other rural townships with strong claims to “cultural

heritage” 􀻓􀟄􁁌􀓁.

Finally, I will reflect on the significance of this study in light of the Great Sichuan

Earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008, a year after I completed my field research.

Located on a major faultline just 86 kilometers from the epicenter in Wenchuan, Mianzhu

was severely damaged by the earthquake that measured 8.0 on the Richter scale and left

an estimated 69,000 dead. This study therefore offers the most complete documentation

of Mianzhu’s nianhua industry just before the devastating effects of the earthquake. In

light of these developments, I will address the important implications of this study for the

ongoing efforts to rebuild Mianzhu and its centuries old nianhua industry.

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Chapter Two: The Power of Ephemera: Ritual Praxis and the Contested Rise of the

Nianhua Marketplace

Although Mianzhu is often touted as one China’s “four great nianhua centers” of

the Qing dynasty, its historic printing industry was actually known as the “door deity

trade” 􀫊􀴪􀏺 before the term nianhua was nationally popularized during the twentieth

century.109 The door deity trade earned its name by producing a far greater number of

door deity prints compared to any other type of print. According to one estimate,

Mianzhu’s printshops collectively produced twelve million door deity prints per year

during the late nineteenth century, compared to just two million prints produced in other

formats.110 Today, the works designed for temporary display on the household door are

once again the most widespread and dominant commodities in the winter nianhua

markets. These works fall under the broad category of nianhua, yet they are still

referenced in Mianzhu by their specific names, as door deities, spring couplets, or lintel

hangings. This chapter will focus on the resurgent production, circulation, and

consumption of these seasonal nianhua, which adorn the doorways of virtually every

neighborhood in Mianzhu. They form a distinct body of works linked together by certain

shared rhythms and spaces, yet they also reveal the changing trends in the marketplace

where new modes of production and use are continuously being introduced.

The majority of these works are now digitally printed in mass quantities using a

variety of printing machines, while a smaller number are still being produced using

109 Feng Tiren 􀙿􀸸􀲥, “Mianzhu shanghui shihua” 􀫥􁇰􀴅􀟶􀵎􀟅 [Historical accounts of Mianzhu's trade

associations] in Mianzhu wenshi ziliao ji 􀫥􁇰􀻓􀵎􁈧􀨘􀠠􀀁14 [Anthology of Mianzhu's historical studies vol.

14], ed. Wang Peisheng 􀺦􀮡􀴳 and Zhang Changlu 􁅦􀓄􀩢 (Mianzhu: Sichuan sheng mianzhu xian

zhengxie xuexi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui, 1995), 13.

110 Gao Wen 􀛚􀻓, Hou Shiwu 􀞥􀵗􀻳, and Ning Zhiqi 􀭡􁆽􀰅, Mianzhu nianhua 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂 [Mianzhu new

year pictures] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1990), 11.

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woodblock printing and hand-painting techniques that have been kept alive in Mianzhu’s

lineage-holding workshops. Although many leading folk art scholars have lamented the

disappearance of the traditional woodblock printing industry as a result of state

circumscription and the introduction of mechanized printing technologies, the situation in

Mianzhu resists such reductive assessments.111 As discussed in the introduction, the

increased circulation of commercially printed nianhua did not destroy the industry but

actually catalyzed and revitalized it, spawning a rich repertoire of ritual print activities in

the community. It is this unique amalgam of old and new practices that sets Mianzhu

apart from other historic printing sites in China, as it presents a complex picture of an

evolving industry that never completely died out, but continued to evolve and adapt to the

changing conditions of the marketplace. By limiting the discussion to these works, I will

be able to hone in on how these developments are taking shape on the ground.

In critiquing the resurgence of these seasonal nianhua, I am primarily interested

in how the very notion of nianhua is being reshaped and recast within these winter

markets and their ritual use in the home. I will argue that the door deities, spring couplets,

and hanging money that flood the markets every year are not necessarily fixed categories

defined by their production methods or modes of representation. Showing up in both

urban and rural neighborhoods, these works come in a wide variety of printed and painted

formats, including handmade prints and paintings, glossy mass-produced prints, and

homemade strips of calligraphy. At times, even works that are not designed for ritual use

111 As discussed in the introduction, the two comprehensive and authoritative histories of nianhua written

by Wang Shucun and Bo Songnian locate the demise of the traditional nianhua industry in the 1950s, with

the state circumscription of the popular printing industry. These texts are: Wang Shucun􀺦􀶎􀕨, Zhongguo

nianhua shi 􁇏􀝓􀭍􀟂􀵎 [Chinese nianhua history] (Beijing: Beijing gongyi meishu chubanshe, 2002), and

Bo Songnian 􀐊􀶾􀭍􀀍 Zhongguo nianhua shi 􁇏􀝓􀭍􀟂􀵎􀀁[Chinese nianhua history] (Shenyang: Liaoning

meishu chubanshe, 1986).

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end up displayed as door deities, including advertisements or household objects that bear

some kind of association with the auspicious. In other words, a wide range of images and

objects are made to perform the role of nianhua when they are strategically positioned

and renewed in the home or marketplace.

When examined in their lived contexts, these works push for a dramatic

rethinking of what constitutes a work of nianhua, which has been largely defined around

modes of representation rather than modes of presentation. By recasting nianhua in

terms of its performed roles, this chapter addresses the many ephemeral goods that have

been long excluded from nianhua studies as either vulgar or imitative versions of the real

thing. To assist in this effort, I will draw on Catherine Bell’s theory of ritual practice,

which stresses the agentive and performative dimensions of ritualizing processes, which

are always evolving and geared towards achieving specific results. Shifting away from

the structural analysis of “ritual systems” and towards a study of “ritual praxis,” Bell

argues for an examination of “how a particular community or culture ritualizes” and

“when and why ritualization is deemed the effective thing to do.”112 Bell’s emphasis on

ritualizing processes is particularly useful for examining how nianhua are continually

redefined and recast by ritual practices that are geared towards livelihood and other daily

needs.

In particular, Bell’s model stresses an inclusive view of ritual in its lived contexts

as reflecting “the full spectrum of ways of acting within any given culture, not as some a

priori category of action totally independent of other forms of action.”113 Instead of

approaching rituals as “clear and autonomous rites,” Bell therefore stresses a conception

112 Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 81.

113 Ibid., 82.

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of ritual activity as unfolding processes, as “methods, traditions and strategies of

‘ritualization.’”114 In the case of the nianhua industry, this translates into a more inclusive

perspective on the range of ritual goods and activities that continue to shape the industry

despite periods of social upheaval and reform. In posing the questions of when and why

certain images are taken up in ritualizing processes, it is possible to examine the evolving

nature of the nianhua industry, rather than judge it against a seemingly coherent and

untroubled past.

The ephemeral nianhua of the winter markets require great attentiveness to how

meaning is continually performed, rather than fixed in the physical object itself. The

highly unstable status of these fleeting works resists fixed interpretations of any kind, as

they are radically embedded within a flow of ongoing practices and processes tied to both

human activities, as well as exposure to the natural elements of wind, sun, and rain. The

fragile door deities, spring couplets, and hanging money are continually caught in a cycle

of renewal and decay, making it almost impossible to pin down a reliable “object” of

analysis. Instead of attempting to resolve this by isolating or “freezing” certain works in

time and space, I am more interested in how the movement and transformative lifecycles

of the works acquire social significance and agency in different situations. In other

words, how can nianhua be reformulated as agentive processes, trajectories, or

propensities? When and how are they harnessed or deployed to support people’s

everyday needs and livelihood?

In his study of Ming dynasty visual and material culture, Craig Clunas

emphasizes the agency of objects in marking out temporal and spatial regimes in the

114 Ibid.

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Ming marketplaces.115 Clunas points to how the timed production and circulation of

many everyday goods (prints, paintings, bowls, vases, textiles, coins, clothing) reinforced

imperial time, seasonal time, or the family time of progressive generations. These objects

activated different ritual activities at different times of year and usually bore visible

markers of these temporal regimes. Clunas thus points to how the overlapping temporal

cycles could be “handled and seen” at all levels of society from the social elite to the very

poorest, so that “no one body of thing occupied the time and the space of the Ming

without contest.”116 In taking up issues of timed circulation and consumption, Clunas

emphasizes both an object’s visible “marks of agency” as well as its physical movement

through time as space as part of its potential effect.117

Taking Clunas’ work as a cue, I will also stress how Mianzhu’s seasonal nianhua

circulate in ways that reinforce temporal and spatial regimes. Most significantly, the

annual influx of nianhua in markets and homes marks out the auspicious dates and

rhythms of the lunar calendar in ways that directly support livelihood. The flow of

ephemeral works also transforms everyday spaces into sites of ritual activity, be it the

temporary street market, household doorway, or nianhua workshop. While Clunas

focuses primarily on the visual markers of temporal agency, such as reign dates and

painted depictions of seasonal imagery, I will also examine processes of appropriation,

where images and objects intended for one use are redeployed and re-circulated as ritual

items. I will thus focus more closely on evolving processes of ritualization, to highlight

115 Craig Clunas, Empire of Great Brightness: Visual and Material Cultures of Ming China (Honolulu:

University of Hawai’i Press, 1997), 1368-1644.

116 Ibid., 32, 52.

117 Ibid., 32.

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the active, conscious, and performative dimensions of these activities within Mianzhu’s

winter nianhua markets.

In shifting the analytical focus onto the role of nianhua within ritual practices, I

do not mean to downplay the significance of the object or relegate it to a passive role

within ritual activity. Instead, I will argue that the fleeting and ephemeral nature of these

works blurs the boundaries between the material and mental realms, or between what

Diana Taylor calls the “archive and the repertoire.”118 The works examined here offer a

unique opportunity to move beyond these binaries and explore the radically dialectical

interactions between objects and practices. To quote Clunas again, one must avoid

imposing a false hierarchy between objects and practices: “I am writing from a

conviction that the relations between agents, relations in which the work is embedded,

illuminate the object, but that equally the object enacts those social relations. In this

dialectical engagement neither enjoys unquestioned primacy.”119

Divided into three major sections, this chapter will unpack the processes of

nianhua ritualization taking place across these interconnected realms: the seasonal

marketplace, the home, and the lineage-holding workshop. In each section, I will include

firsthand observations of the works in situ and interviews with nianhua users and makers

to draw forth the performative aspects of emerging ritual strategies. On a macroscopic

level, these three realms join together to form the core of the seasonal nianhua industry,

yet the examples show that they are not coherently unified by a shared set of ideals or

beliefs. Instead, the ritual practices emerging in each realm reveal diverse conceptions of

118 Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham:

Duke University Press, 2003), 16.

119 Craig Clunas, Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press,

2003), 13.

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agency that are creatively geared towards meeting the shifting challenges of daily life.

Thus I am deploying the notion of the “performative” to indicate how these practices are

intended to achieve specific results and aims.120 In taking up the cyclic movements of

nianhua across these three realms, I will therefore stress how nianhua’s attributed power

to “pursue the auspicious, repel the portentous” serves as an open-ended site of

contestation tied to people’s immediate needs and aims.