Is far more complicated than a restaging of traditional practices.7

The rise of Mianzhu’s nianhua industry departs dramatically from the

development of the print centers of the north and east, lending significance to this case

study. The historic records and contemporary print practices in Mianzhu debunk the

notion that nianhua is a dead or dying tradition completely overtaken by official activities.

The evidence points to a vibrant and thriving body of printing and painting activities that

did not simply disappear, but continue to evolve in tandem with the changing conditions

of everyday life, adapting and developing alongside the prolonged periods of print reform

as well as the outright ban on nianhua. This is documented in the interviews, photos, and

collected nianhua archives held in state institutions and collected during the 1950s and

6 State-funded nianhua museums have been spreading across China, with the first built in Wuqiang, Hebei

in 1985, followed by Mianzhu’s Nianhua Museum in 1996, the Tianjin Yangliuqing Nianhua Museum

renovation in 2011, and shortly thereafter the Zhuxianzhen Nianhua Museum in Henan.

7 A recent essay by Bo Songnian reiterates the demise of nianhua at the hands of failed state-led revival

activities and commercial printing practices since the early 1980s. Bo Songnian, “Xingshuai cunwang

zhongde nianhua yishu” 􀾖􀶚􀕩􀺧􁇏􀖥􀭍􀟂􁁜􀶌􀀁[The Rise, Fall, Preservation, and Loss of Nianhua Art] Art

Observation 􀫅􀶌􀜴􀒳 2 (2005): 8-10.

5

early 1960s print reform movements. In reading against the grain of this material, I found

compelling evidence that Mianzhu’s nianhua industry was not completely stifled under

state controls. In this study, I draw on firsthand observations and interviews with

contemporary nianhua makers and users to reveal the close ties between the nianhua

industry and the “living history” of the region including such customs as theatrical

storytelling, the sharing of auspicious speech, fengshui activities, and lineage-making

practices.

While the scholarly literature on nianhua focuses on archived materials of the

mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, this study makes its contribution by

examining contemporary nianhua as they appear in situ, seamlessly integrated with

cycles of production, circulation, and consumption. Thus far, the methodology for

archival research has focused predominantly on issues of production and representation.

In the influential nianhua history by Bo Songnian for instance, a central unifying feature

of nianhua is its attributed power “to attract the auspicious, repel the portentous” (􀱴􀠝􀑅

􀾢 or 􀱺􀽻􀬬􀚞), a concept that is visually conveyed through “artistic” and “aesthetic”

means.8 Bo accordingly interprets a wide variety of works by decoding the representation

of auspicious signs, symbols, or motifs. In treating nianhua as the visual texts of a shared

iconographic system, the tendency has been to characterize nianhua as a rather rigid and

unchanging tradition with timeless designs. In a joint study, Bo Songnian and Sinologist

David Johnson have stressed a community’s rigid adherence to established nianhua

iconographies: “presumably once a god’s iconography had been fixed, some devotees

rejected any but the smallest changes in it, much as village women balked at changes in

8 Bo,􀀁Chinese Nianhua History, 1-5.

6

funeral rituals.”9 They go on to explain how print shops had little motivation to introduce

change because of “perennial favorites” in the marketplace and the costly price of making

new designs that might be rejected by customers. Furthermore, the collective production

process itself is framed as conformist in nature: “ when block carvers did have to make a

new design, they frequently relied on pattern books, which by definition preserved older

styles.”10

An important departure from the folk art paradigm is a recent study by historian

James Flath, who focuses on the popular prints of rural north China of the late nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries.11 Flath situates nianhua as “print culture,” which he

summarily defines as “a means of understanding the world through print” that includes

the physical dimension of “producing, disseminating, obtaining, displaying, and reading

print” as well as a social dimension where “print culture is the abstraction of the world

created by the repeated and systematic application of ink to paper, and the penetration

and transformation of social relations by print.”12 In his effort to write a “cultural history”

of rural northern China, Flath draws attention to the active role of nianhua within various

social and political discourses tied to modernity, domesticity, nation building, and

gender. In short, Flath resituates nianhua as a historical text rather than a distinctly visual

one, to examine how “perceptions of the social and physical world were put into print,

and how print, in turn, configured perceptions of the social and ethical world.”13

Flath’s approach provides an important foundation for this present study,

9 Bo Songnian and David Johnson, Domesticated Deities and Auspicious Emblems (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1993), 17.

10 Ibid., 18.

11 James Flath’s Cult of Happiness: Nianhua Art, and History in Rural North China focuses on the print

centers in Shandong, Hebei, and Henan provinces.

12 Ibid., 2.

13 Ibid., 4.

7

especially in pushing beyond the purely aesthetic or artistic aspects of nianhua and in

acknowledging the regional specificities of the industry. However, in focusing on issues

of production and representation, Flath makes the central argument that “the single most

important aspect of the village-based print industry was that it engaged in prescriptive

mass production–a process by which a uniform object was collectively produced using a

defined set of tools and techniques and in deference to collectively defined social

values.”14 Flath expands this view to include the realm of consumption as well, where the

“prescriptive ethic was carried by nianhua through markets and into the homes of their

consumers.”15 Picking up on Bo and Johnson’s argument, this prescriptive view reflects

the widely held consensus that nianhua are the mass produced products of a traditional

social system that resisted creative agency and change.

This study will press for an alternate perspective that acknowledges the

innovative aspects of the nianhua industry, which has continuously developed and

adapted to the changing conditions of the marketplace. Existing studies have focused on

the print centers in the north, where multi-block printing techniques prevailed as a

common method for applying multiple layers of color to a print.16 In Mianzhu however,

the colors and finishing details of a print are all applied by hand with a brush (fig. 2).

Whereas a prescriptive approach might be an appropriate description of a multi-block

printing process, Mianzhu’s workshops display variation and experimentation in

brushwork, especially in the final stages of painting in the colors, surface outlines, and

facial details. Neither collective nor individual forms of authorship can be easily used to

characterize Mianzhu’s workshops, as both concepts are simultaneously deployed.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid., 32.

16 For a discussion of the multi-block color printing process, Ibid.,18-20.

8

Historic records describe the signature traits of individual master designers, carvers,

printers, and painters as well as the unique skills of a workshop as a whole.17

Since Flath’s notion of “print culture” focuses solely on the particular medium of

print, it is perhaps more fitting to describe Mianzhu nianhua as a “print and painting

culture.” In both the past and present, Mianzhu’s printmakers have been motivated to

come up with novel designs and fresh production methods to survive in a competitive and

sometimes hostile marketplace. This has carried forth in Mianzhu’s nianhua industry

today, where experienced and emerging nianhua producers jockey for status and

authority in the marketplace by innovating works on a regular basis. Using a variety of

creative marketing tactics, Mianzhu’s nianhua makers are also continually performing

the auspicious or portentous meanings tied to their products. This involves the strategic

use of propitious sites such as shrines or temples to set up outdoor markets and the

selection of favorable dates of the lunar calendar to conduct business activities.

The processes of experimentation and appropriation are not only aspects of

nianhua production, but also evident in the evolving modes of consumption and display.

The preoccupation with auspicious time and space is evident in the diverse configurations

of household nianhua displays, which are strategically arranged and renewed to protect

vulnerable passageways and to activate positive interactions in the home. The most

widely seen works are protective “door deities” 􀫊􀴪 posted on the exterior of household

doors to guard the home from all negative influences. These are usually balanced with

“spring couplets” 􀔽􀧳 on either side, two vertical strips of paper with auspicious phrases

17 For a list of the established names and workshops in Mianzhu’s historical print trade, see Hou Shiwu 􀞥

􀵗􀻳 and Liu Zhumei 􀨾􁇰􀪼, Mianzhu nianhua gailun􀀁􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀛀􀪂􀀁[Introduction to Mianzhu’s nianhua]

in Mianzhu nianhua jingpin ji 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀣚􀯖􀠢 [Selected works of Mianzhu nianhua], ed. Hou Rong 􀞥􀲴

(Chengdu: Sichuan meishu chubanshe, 2005): 11-17.

9

inscribed on them. A third strip with an auspicious phrase often hangs above the center of

the door as a “lintel hanging” 􀫊􀰦. In this example of an urban household in Mianzhu,

two door deity prints showing the popular demon-queller Zhongkui 􁇒􁉮 are posted up on

either side of a double-leaf doorway, framed by a set spring couplets and lintel hanging

(fig. 3). While the door deity prints are instances of machine-printed nianhua, digitally

designed and produced in mass quantities by the latest computerized technologies in

commercial printing, the spring couplet and lintel hanging are hand-painted works. This

combination of machine-made and handmade nianhua is a common sight in Mianzhu and

across China, reflecting diverse practices of display. Furthermore, an extremely wide