年画是中国民间最普及的艺术品之一，多数地方都有过新年张贴新年画的习俗，因一年更换，或谓张贴后可供一年欣赏之用，故称“年画”。民间年画是中国民间美术中较大的一个艺术门类，它从早期的自然，崇拜和神祗信仰逐渐发展为驱邪纳祥、祈福禳灾和欢乐喜庆、装饰美化环境的节日风俗活动，表达了民众的思想情感和向往美好生活的愿望。民间年画历史源远流长，有着较多的产地，流行也十分广泛，通俗普及，而且拥有大量的读者，曾经有过颇为兴盛的发展。无论是题材内容、刻印技术，还是艺术风格，都具有自己鲜明的特色。它不仅对民间美术的其他门类曾产生深远的影响，而且与其他绘画形成相互融合成为一种成熟的画种，具有雅俗共赏的特点。

A Split Watermelon with Its Seeks Showing

●●●多福、多寿、多子之意。 This picture depicts two children breaking off a watermelon with their fingers and thumbs. The melon-seeds are showing, and the gaily decorated basket nearby contains flat peaches and pomegranates. They all imply plenty of children and longevity. As an ancient saying goes:"All senior officials are called 'zi' which is homonymous with 'zi', meaning'son' or 'child'. So to have many 'zi'(sons) signifies many ministers or high officials in the family. All these epitomize the yearning of the people of ancient times for a happy life. Note: 'zi' was an ancient title of respect for a learned or virtuous man.

Enjoying Prosperity Year After year

●●● 以“莲”、“鱼”、等谐音为“莲年有馀”，寓生活美好之意。 Here is a boy holding a lotus in his hand and a goldfish in his arms. "lian" in "lianhua"(lotus) stands for its homophone"lian" in "liannian" (successive years) and "yu" (fish) for its homophone "yu"(surplus). Taken together, "liannianyouyu" gives the meaning of "enjoying prosperity year after year " or "to have enough and to spare year after year ". The subject matter, form and color of this picture have become the hallmark of Yangliuqing New Year paintings.

Child and fish in the Lotus Pond

●●●一娃娃游于莲池，摸得一尾金鱼，而用口咬鱼鳍，继续摸鱼。 This is a picture showing a child swimming in a lotus pond and holding a fish fin in his mouth. Although the theme of the picture is also "to enjoy prosperity year after year " by way of homophones---"lian" in "Lianhua" (lotus flower) stands for "lian " in " liannian" (successive years ) and "yu"(surplus), it breaks away from the conventional scene of a sitting boy holding a lotus and fish . This makes the scene closer to real life and child more lifelike.

flowers of the Four Seasons

●●●以牡丹、荷花、菊花、梅花象徽四季，故题“四季花开”。 In this picture, the painter has not only made use of the traditional style of Yangliuqing New Year paintings, but has also attached great importance to the accurate shaping of the figures. The four flowers---peony, lotus, chrysanthemum and plum suggest an everlasting spring ansd profusion of colors which express people'love for the happy life.

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-6-9 10:02:13编辑过]

Good Luck and Auspiciousness

●●●三个娃娃坐在一起,一个以扇戏蝙蝠，一个肩扛橘枝,一个手持玉磐. 以"蝠"、“扇”、“橘”、“磐” 谐音为“福善吉庆”。寓吉祥富贵之意。 In this picture, three children are seen playeng with a bat. The proper spacing of the figures shows the technique used in traditional Chinese figure painting. A few strokes of the brush bring out the attentive expressions of the children to perfection. Homophones are used to convey the meaning of "good luck and auspiciousness" with "fu" in "bianfu" (bat) and "shan" in "shanzi"(fan) standing for "fushan" (good luck) "ju" in "juzi" (orange) and "qing" in "yuqing" (chime stone) for "jiqing" (auspiciousness).

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-6-9 10:04:26编辑过]

Having Fun with a Katydid

●●●一娃娃手托蝈蝈葫芦，蝈蝈却跳到他的头上，很有情趣。旁有白菜萝卜，有秋获之意。蝈蝈，音谐“哥哥”，隐寓生男之兆。 This picture depicts a boy is holding a katydid jar, but the insect has jumped out of it and landed on top of his head. Katydid is also called "jiao gege ". In the past, the people regarded men as superior to women. They would often use "jiao gege" as a homonym "calling for a brother", which serves as an analogy to an omen portending the birth of a son.

Lian Deng Taishi

●●●两个娃娃在观灯戏狮狗。以“莲”、“灯”、“狮”等谐音，题作“莲灯太师”。 古代官制，太师为三公之首。故为祝愿发迹升官之颂辞。 The four characters in the caption of this picture, lian, deng, taishi (lotus, lantern, the greatest lion ) are homonymous with four similar characters . meaning : successive, ascend ,the king's tutor. They elucidate the theme of the picture, which is: Be successively promoted to the post of the king's tutor. ('taishi " was the title of one of the three 'gong'. It is recorded in the book, Zhou Guan: "Taishi, Taifu and Taibao have been elected. At present, there are only three gong." They were the king's tutors.) This picture lays special stress on the portrayal of the modeling, bearing and facial expressions of the characters. The difference in the colors of the children's skin further augments the vividness of its general aspect.

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-6-9 10:08:30编辑过]

Symbols of Good fortune and longevity

●●●一娃娃仰卧芭蕉叶上，头枕佛手，怀抱鲜桃，手持蝙蝠，脚撑石榴，与飞来仙鹤嬉戏。蝙蝠、佛手象徽多福；仙鹤、鲜桃象徽长寿；榴开百子象徽多子，是谓三多。 Here is a boy lying on a bannan leaf with a fingered citron under his head, a peach in his arms, a bat in his hand and a pomegranate against his legs. He is frolicking with a crane. the bat and the fingered citron symbolize good fortune; the crane and peach stand for longevity; the pomegranate symbolizes a great number of seeds (sons) . The picture expresses people's wish for sons, good fortune and longevity.

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-6-9 10:10:57编辑过]

The Bearing of A Phoenix

●●●实是书两个娃娃在戏逗禽鸟。凤凰是传说中的瑞禽，凤凰来仪则有迹象如意之兆。 It is said that when a phoenix comes to dance it assumes a regal bearing which the people of ancient times regarded as the fulfilment of luck. The phoenix perching on the hillock, the cry of a phoenix serve to imply an omen that wise and able persons will have good fortune and will rise in the world. The lingzhi (glossy ganoderma ) in the child's hand is a symbol of longevity, as it is commonly believed that life can be lengthened by eating the plant.

The expression explains itself. The Chinese people have the custom of sticking up pictures to celebrate the traditional New Year--now called the Spring Festival. This was recorded in historical works of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The custom is particularly popular in the vast countryside, where just before the festival day every household will be busy spring cleaning and pasting colourful pictures or paper cuttings on their doors, windows, walls, even wardrobes and stoves. Traditional New Year pictures, usually made by the block printing method, are characterized by simple, clear lines, brilliant colours and scenes of prosperity. The method consists of several steps: drawing and tracing, block engraving, printing, colouring and, in some cases, mounting. The finished pictures, therefore, have the features of both woodcut prints and Chinese paintings, making a special branch in traditional folk art.

The New Year picture (nianhua) was the most important influence on the propaganda posters produced by the Chinese Communist Party. Employing various elements of folk art and symbolism, these pictures catered to the tastes and beliefs in the countryside, expressing wishes for happiness and good luck. According to the Chinese nianhua specialist Wang Shucun, "During the New Year festival, more than 20 varieties of New Year prints would be stuck on the front gates, doors onto the courtyard, walls of a room, besides a room's windows, or on the water vat, rice cabinet, granary, or livestock fold. Colourful and floral prints would be everywhere in the house to express the hopes and joy of the festival."

Nianhua derived from 'paper gods' and other forms of utilitarian-magic art and made use of symbols that were traditionally and conventionally seen as auspicious, including those for long life, a government career, and wealth. This contributed to their popularity among the people. Often, they featured mythological personages like the Kitchen God, the Door God and the God of Longevity; this turned them into magical charms to drive away bad luck.

When the CCP appropriated New Year prints for propagandistic purposes in the 1940s, artistic and aesthetic forms were selected that the people had grown accustomed to, filled with new, revolutionary content. But the revolutionary artists looked down on these old forms of popular culture; they were more dedicated to the cosmopolitanism of the cities. They considered traditional art forms to be too intimately connected with the elements of 'feudal,' Confucian superstition. Consequently, other types of images replaced them. These still may have featured chubby boys (and girls) but they were permeated with symbols that reflected the correct ideological standpoint.

The nianhua produced by the Party were, on the one hand, much too 'Chinese' and vulgar to please intellectuals and the urbanites who considered themselves to be more sophisticated. The masses, on the other hand, found them too Westernized and over-simplified to be of great interest for them. 'New' nianhua, then, only existed because of the Party, for political reasons. They only replaced traditional nianhua because the CCP succeeded in shutting the latter out by prohibiting their production and distribution. This explains why propaganda posters could be seen in many individual homes in the first decades of .