Variety to choose from and the images are not expensive. They also get more

beautiful every year. Many people are better off now, and they have the better

means to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but certainly some are more fortunate

than others.176

Overall, the emerging nianhua displays in Mianzhu and the firsthand accounts of

Lunar New Year activities reveal diverse approaches to nianhua consumption that are not

connected by a unified set of ideals or beliefs but rather a range of conflicting perceptions

and attitudes. I have therefore emphasized a performative approach to the ritual practices

that shape nianhua’s significance in the home, where a creative array of strategies are

174 Ibid.

175 Bo Songnian 􀐊􀶾􀭍, “Xingshuai cunwang zhongde nianhua yishu” 􀾖􀶚􀕩􀺧􁇏􀖥􀭍􀟂􁁜􀶌􀀁[The Rise,

Fall, Preservation, and Loss of Nianhua Art] Art Observation 􀫅􀶌􀜴􀒳 2 (2005): 8-10.

176 Conversation with a local resident in Mianzhu, Sichuan, June 2006.

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employed. These strategies reflect the changing conditions of everyday life, including the

continuous influx of new goods, ideas, and technologies. The rural or urban home is thus

a permeable space, intimately connected to larger trends in the marketplace. At the same

time, the home serves as a site where emerging goods and technologies may be

appropriated for new uses and ritual ends.

Just as the periodic market harnesses auspicious time and space to maximize its

potential for profit, so do the household displays of nianhua. The rhythms of the home

and market are thus synchronized with the circulation of nianhua, supporting a wide

range of activities tied to everyday life and livelihood. I will stress here the importance of

the dynamic and dialectical relationship between ephemeral nianhua and the processes of

ritualization that define and shape their meaning. Caught in a continuous cycle of renewal

and decay, the works themselves are always changing and in flux. At the same time, the

ritual practices tied to nianhua are also evolving in tandem with the changing conditions

and spaces of everyday life. Perhaps the only stabilizing element here is the timing, the

climatic turning of the lunar year.

Lineage-making Strategies for Reclaiming Authority in the Nianhua Marketplace

I will now turn to the ritualization processes employed by local printmakers to

rebuild their workshops in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. In particular, I will

examine how local lineage-holding printmakers strategically reassert their identities and

the ritual efficacy of their works in order to compete in the emerging marketplace. The

notion of a nianhua “lineage” usually refers to a familial line of nianhua producers who

construct and assert their lineage-holding status through a variety of means, including

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their family genealogy, signature production skills, and territorial claims to a particular

production site that may or may not belong to the family. Since the late 1970s, Mianzhu’s

nianhua lineages have had to actively reconstruct their lineage-holding status with the

help of few supporting documents or none at all because these were lost or confiscated

during the Cultural Revolution.

It must be noted here that the term “lineage” is a problematic construct, which has

been unpacked in recent scholarship as an anthropological fiction with no direct

correspondence to Chinese concepts of zong 􁈷, jia 􀡅, xing 􀾠, shi􀵦, fang􀙜, pai 􀮊, or

zu 􁉂, to name a few of the related terms. The recent sinological literature has thus

pushed for a shift away from an apriori rationalization of the functional characteristics of

lineage and towards an analysis of specific practices to address how the social rules,

regulations, and operational principles of lineage must be performed and lived out in

practice to be realized. Allen Chun has stressed this point and warned against the