The High-end Heritage Industry: Replicas and Remakes

In the past ten years, a number of independent nianhua workshops have opened in

Mianzhu’s urban core to sell nianhua prints, paintings, embroidered images, and

industrially manufactured souvenirs. Some of these shops have adopted the lineage

names of workshops from Mianzhu’s historic print trade, such as the Yunhezhai

workshop that borrows its name from a Qing dynasty printshop. High-end souvenir shops

have also made loose claims to older lineages by asserting a remote family relationship or

personal connection to a well-known family lineage. For instance, the Jiannan huifeng

Workshop claims lineage to the Zhang family line because the owner’s father once

worked in the Zhang family workshop. To further enhance these claims to the nianhua

heritage, these shops are usually outfitted with traditional furniture, rustic doorways, and

the vintage decor of older printshops.

Although these new workshops are eager to market themselves by claiming

access to an established lineage, the actual works they sell often have little to do with the

historic print trade. Instead, they are engaged in a growing industry of “replicas”

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(fuzhipin 􀚯􁇅􀯖) (fig. 81). These fuzhipin replicas are intentionally made to look aged

like the museum originals they are based on. Designed for permanent use, these are

usually framed and sold at much higher prices than the print ephemera sold in the Chen

and Li workshops. In addition, these shops also sell a wide range of souvenirs adorned

with nianhua designs such as commercially printed stamps, coasters, fans, pillowcases, tshirts,

hanging charms, and tablecloths (fig. 82). Produced by factory workers in various

parts of China, these replicas and souvenirs are usually marked with the new workshops’

names.

In contrast to the painting term linmo, which allows for a degree of interpretation

and variation in copying, the term fuzhi refers to an exact copy where the intention is to

produce an identical reproduction of the original. The difference between these two

concepts calls to mind Walter Benjamin’s famous observation regarding the loss of the

“aura” in mechanically reproduced works of art.330 Interestingly, it appears the other way

around for nianhua: it is the mass-produced print ephemera that retain an aura of divine

power while the framed replicas appear as the fossilized forms of nianhua heritage.

The rapid growth of the fuzhipin industry is a direct result of state-sponsored

policies that have long encouraged the merging of the industrial sector with the folk art

revival. This goal was first set forth by the province in the early 1980s and gradually

gained momentum in the 1990s and 2000s with increasing financial investment from the

state and private entrepreneurs. I soon learned that many of the owners of the new

workshops were not natives but wealthy urban entrepreneurs from nearby cities such as

Chengdu or Chongqing. Despite their lack of knowledge of local nianhua practices, they

330 Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)," in Illuminations,

ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken, 1969), 217-52.

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have established a high-end replica trade that appropriates lineage discourses to market

such goods. These developments raise the stakes around lineage discourses by competing

with shops that continue to sell relatively inexpensive print ephemera.

However, the works that are worth the most in the nianhua industry are not highend

replicas but the works of contemporary folk art produced by art academy trained

artists. Since the 1980s, a handful of these artists have attempted to reposition Mianzhu

nianhua in the realm of contemporary art, including Liu Zhumei, Hou Shiwu􀀍 Jin

Pingding 􀣁􀯜􀗧, and Hu Guangkui 􀞱􀜻􀦈. Liu Zhumei is the most prominent and active

figure in this group today. A self-fashioned “folk artist” 􀫶􀡗􀟂􀡅 and native of Mianzhu,

she is currently a resident artist and researcher with the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum as

well as a mentor for this present study. In the late 1980s, Liu trained in Beijing at the

Central Academy of Fine Arts under the renowned folk art researcher Bo Songnian. Her

training in a prestigious folk art program allowed her to acquire skills in both traditional

printmaking and contemporary painting; it also gave her access to the national and

international art markets.331

Liu’s works make use of a wide range of auspicious imagery, such as door deities

and beautiful maidens, yet she produces permanent works of art that are not intended for

ritual use. In her widely published image Straw Cutting Maidens 􀛩􀒤􀭯 (1995), Liu uses

the distinct forms of printing and painting found in historic Mianzhu nianhua works (fig.

83). This painting on canvas depicts three repeated figures of a maiden who has upturned

pigtails and carries a basket full of straw from which a sickle protrudes. The three figures

echo the “three twists of the body” 􀳘􀗕􀴦 in the maiden’s posture, a compositional

331 Having earned prestigious awards early in her career, Liu’s works have been widely exhibited across

China including major folk art exhibitions in Beijing and Hong Kong as well as Taiwan.

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element that is widely seen in Mianzhu’s door deity prints. Various details call up the

printing process used in Mianzhu’s nianhua workshops. The maidens’ dark green

costumes are printed with stamped designs of stylized white flowers, while golden

flowers are stamped next to the maiden’s feet. The cut straw may reference the

auspicious notion of an abundant harvest, but it may also call up the use of straw for

papermaking.

In certain areas of the painting, particularly in the thinly outlined baskets hanging

on the back of each maiden, lines overlap with the figures, echoing the printed outlines of

nianhua works before the colors are added. A rough application of pink wash on the

maidens’ faces and the thick strokes of color on the aprons call up the rustic “beautiful

maiden” prints found in Mianzhu. Finally, the individually painted hairs on the maidens’

foreheads appear stiff and flat as if they were the carved lines of a woodblock. In contrast

to nianhua prints however, the background is completely painted to create an

atmospheric effect full of layered texture.

These details reveal Liu’s familiarity with the methods of printing and painting

that distinguish Mianzhu’s nianhua prints from other regional print centers. The work

quotes the defining characteristics of historic prints, resituating these methods in the

context of contemporary folk art. In her own words, she has “chewed up tradition as well

as contemporary art approaches, in order to spit them out in her art works.” For Liu, this

is a metaphor for her holistic approach to printing and painting, which she sees as an

embodied expression of her life experience as a native of Mianzhu as well as an academy

trained artist.332

332 Liu Zhumei, in an interview with the author, Mianzhu, Sichuan, December 2006.

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In many works, Liu appropriates elements from Mianzhu’s historic nianhua, such

as her 2001 Door Deity painting (fig. 84). The outlines of the two door deities in this

work are copied from a set of Qing dynasty prints held in the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum,

with the only altered element being the exaggerated facial contours and eyes. The

alternating cool and warm colors reflect the widespread use of contrasting colors in

Mianzhu’s door deities. The symmetrical balance of the figures is further emphasized

with the contrasting red and green backgrounds that seem to mark out two large doors.

These two halves are joined in the center by a heart, Liu’s handprints, and a phrase for

repelling the portentous: “Holding weapons to guard against wrongdoing” 􁆳􁅭􀺹􀙝􀙤.

The placement of this phrase over a centerline calls up the ritual placement of

strips of paper with auspicious phrases over the opening of a door. In this regard, the

painting references the ritual use of nianhua in the home. In quoting historic nianhua as

well as their current forms of ritual consumption, Liu’s paintings reflect an intimate

understanding of nianhua as a living tradition. However, in contrast to local workshops

that continue to produce ritual goods for either the local population or visiting tourists,

Liu’s permanent art works are geared towards urban art collectors, galleries, and

museums around the world. As such, they have a much higher asking price and no two

works are ever identical.

Liu’s works are circulated in many national and international folk art exhibitions,

where she is often framed as a representative of “traditional Mianzhu nianhua.” In

published commentaries on her work, she is also described as an “innovator” working to

push traditional nianhua into new arenas of art and culture. Along with the works of other

academy trained artists working in this vein, Liu’s paintings have been widely described

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as “innovative nianhua” 􀔷􀾍􀭍􀟂.333 However, as recycled tropes, “new” or “innovative”

nianhua are labels that call up references to the 1950s print reforms that referred to

politically reformed prints as “new nianhua.” As I have argued earlier, the temporal

divide between old and new nianhua has long been used to relegate nianhua tradition to

the past, as fossilized artifacts to be confiscated or collected for storage in state

institutions.

For this emerging group of folk artists, selectively appropriating the visual

elements of prestigious works has become a proven method to situate oneself within the

international folk art marketplace while claiming access to Mianzhu’s nianhua heritage.

Due to their urban upbringing and professional training, academy trained artists are

immediately privileged in their efforts to access the folk art market at large. However, for

those trained in the local nianhua industry, these opportunities are often beyond reach. In

a recently published interview, Chen Gang of the Chen family workshop expressed a

strong desire to move into new media and to break into the lucrative contemporary art

market. However, he continues to struggle for access to the elite networks of museums,

galleries, arts publishers, and collectors that regularly support academy trained artists.