The Northern School of Mianzhu Nianhua

The Northern and Southern schools of Mianzhu nianhua are relatively recent

designations, labels that only came into use after the Cultural Revolution in Mianzhu. As

the state-led nianhua revival got underway, the terms came into widespread use as an

abbreviated way to reference the two main geographic vicinities where nianhua was in

production (fig. 38). 199 Interestingly, the Chen and Li workshops have since adopted

these terms to construct the lineage-holding status of their workshops. In contrast to

Wang, both Chen and Li come from rural families, where farming is the primary form of

livelihood. They were trained as carvers and painters and worked in the seasonal print

Industry as apprentices and hired hands. While year-round designers such as the Wang

focused on painting original designs, Chen and Li specialized in the final phase of adding

color and details to printed outlines. In developing their own workshops, both Chen and

Li have capitalized on these skills to construct unique workshop repertoires. The

following interviews with Chen and Li were also conducted in the summer of 2006. I met

Chen and Li through Liu Zhumei but she did not accompany me on these visits. Instead, I

was joined by Han Gang 􀝢􀛐, a graduate art history student who assisted me with

translations of the Mianzhu dialect. Not unlike the conversation with Wang, both Chen

and Li had well-rehearsed presentations of their workshop histories. They informed me

right away that they often get visiting journalists, scholars, and officials who request

interviews.

199 For a discussion on the Northern and Southern schools of Mianzhu see Shen Hong 􀴫􁚼, Mianzhu

nianhua zhi lu 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􁆭􀩪􀀁[Touring Mianzhu nianhua] (Beijing: Zhongguo huabao chubanshe, 2006),

107-128, 163-176.

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Li Fangfu 􀧙􀙚􀚞, the self-proclaimed lineage holder of the Northern School,

agreed to meet with us for a recorded interview in his small street-level studio in

Mianzhu’s urban center. He seemed eager to share the details of his training and his

workshop’s history and immediately brought out a stack of prints (fig. 39). According to

Li, he lost both his parents to illness by the age of six and was adopted into a print

workshop at the young age of twelve. Li gained his skills in the Huang Anfu Workshop

􀟛􀎽􀚶􀟂􀗋, which was located to the west of Mianzhu in an area known today as West

Road 􀼆􀩞. During the land reforms of the 1950s, Li and his family were relocated to the

north of Mianzhu, where they settled in the rural farming community of Gongxing. As

the nianhua revival gathered momentum in the 1980s, the Li family set up a year-round

nianhua shop in a small alley known not far from the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum.200 Li’s

workshop doubles as his street-side storefront. He and his wife live in a home in

Mianzhu’s rural outskirts and they commute to the city each day to open the shop. The

walls of his shop are covered on all sides in hanging scrolls, with a long table in the

center and a glass case filled with smaller size prints (fig. 40). Unlike Wang, there is no

family altar on display in the workspace.

When asked about the characteristics of the Northern and Southern schools, Li

explains the primary differences in terms of methods of production:

The two schools are different due to their methods of production. The Southern

School uses bold colors and they are vibrant and all made by hand on a flat

pingan [􀯜􀏃] table. What is pingan? It means you work on a table’s surface, just

like making big flat cakes. You work on a pingan table. The Northern School

works on a wall, just like in this room where you see all these hanging works on

200 This alley is now locally known as “Imitating the Ancients Road” 􀙟􀜞􀢧, as several new nianhua shops

and temporary stalls have sprung up alongside Li’s workshop in recent years. I will discuss these new

shops in more detail in Chapter Four.

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the walls. Why is this? All of these works are hung up on the wall then painted.

First of all, this trains the hand in brushwork; secondly, it trains the body to be

lively and energetic. Using these methods of production, one can produce more

works in one day. Why is this? Once you finish a picture, you have to move it

aside. If you are working on a wall, and you finish painting one picture, you

simply step aside to work on the next one. This method is more efficient. It is also

more conducive to training one’s hand.201

The key differences between working on a table versus working on a wall are explained

here, as Li points out the merits of working vertically. For Li, it is not only preferable for

gradually training one’s hand in brushwork; it is also a more efficient set up for mass

production. This is set apart from the Southern School, which he associates with bold

colors and working on a horizontal surface. This focus on brushwork and training aligns

well with Li’s understanding of the efficacious power of the prints as being directly

linked to the mastery of the brush. As mentioned earlier, Li commented on how painters

possess an ability to infuse an image with a righteous spirit through their brushwork, a

powerful means to repel the portentous.

Having established the basic differences of the two schools based on production

methods, Li goes on to describe one of the signature methods of brushwork used in the

Northern School:

The Northern School is best known for a method called mingzhang minggua 􀫼􁅚

􀫼􀜫. What is this? It is like these pictures here; the flowers have inside them yet

another circular stroke of color. The bright red has inside it a circular outline of

dark red and the dark red has inside it a circular outline of white. There are also

lines that divide the colors. This is called mingzhang minggua, where every color

is outlined by another. If [the colors] are stamped on, it is flat and there are no

201 Li Fangfu, in interview with the author, Mianzhu, Sichuan, January 2007.

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raised surfaces. [In these works,] you can feel the raised lines; they all stick up.

This is the difference between the two schools.202

An approximate translation for mingzhang minggua may be “bright outlines” or literally

“brightly displayed, brightly hanging.” A pair of Li’s warrior door deity prints shows the

deity’s costume outlined in this method (fig. 41). Thick white lines are applied and

visibly raised off the surface of the paper. They are described as “bright” because they

usually produce a high contrast with the darker colors underneath. This method is

actually widely seen in the older door deity works held in the permanent collection of the

Mianzhu Nianhua Museum. However, Li claims this method for the Northern School and

keeps it alive as part of his evolving repertoire of techniques to produce ritually

efficacious images.

Li’s discussion of the Northern School therefore constructs a continuous

transmission of brushwork and signature production methods rather than a continuity of

kinship relations. The term for “lineage” used by Li is always pai, in contrast to the