The Theme of Foshan Woodblock New Year Pictures

The custom of pasting New Year pictures during the Spring Festival has a long history. Before the Ming Dynasty, people used to put stone carvings of tigers and lions in front of their doors to ward off evil spirits. Since the rise of New Year pictures, people began to paste Spring Festival couplets, swing spring and door pictures after the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as door-pasting gods, to exorcise evil spirits.

As a special form of local activities, Foshan woodblock New Year pictures reflect the historical roots of Foshan local culture and some basic conditions of Foshan traditional folk painting and printing technology.

In terms of techniques, Foshan woodcut New Year pictures include original paintings, woodcuts and woodcut meticulous paintings. According to the subject matter, the woodcuts of door paintings (commonly known as door gods), idol paintings, lamp paintings, side paintings and commonly known as "Annan paintings" in Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries in the early Republic of China were the largest. Their main functions were to offer sacrifices, pray and decorate the environment, reflecting people's desire to exorcise evil spirits and seek happiness.

In the past, the themes of Foshan woodblock New Year pictures were mostly gods, historical figures and drama stories, such as "Shencha", "Qin", "Weichi Gong", "Fulu Shouquan", "Golden Boy", "He Erxian", "Mother of Heaven", "Guan Gong" and "Bao Gong". The subject matter is very extensive, showing the people's good wishes and ideals. After the founding of New China, Foshan Woodblock New Year Pictures created a large number of new year pictures with modern themes, such as Three Red Flags and Women Hold Up Half the Sky.