Modern Express News (Correspondent Yuntouxuan Reporter Gu Xiaowen / Photo) The Spring Festival is approaching, and in the tradition of Chinese, we must paste the festive Spring Festival at home and paste the New Year paintings with beautiful meanings. On January 4, a reporter from the Modern Express saw at the Yangzhou Guangling Ancient Books Engraving and Printing Agency that the "Year of the Tiger Painting" produced by the world-class intangible cultural heritage engraving and printing technology has been officially launched, allowing the "intangible cultural heritage" to enter the lives of ordinary people and adding cultural atmosphere to the Spring Festival.
On the morning of January 4, 2022, a modern Express reporter saw at the Guangling Ancient Books Engraving and Printing Agency that the staff was using traditional techniques to print New Year paintings. "It's all hand-printed, very slow." The reporter saw that this engraved and printed New Year painting named "Tiger Tiger Shengwei" was created by the Yangzhou Guangling Ancient Books Engraving and Printing Society, and the picture was composed of mother and son and two tigers, the big tiger looked angrily, the little tiger was cute, and the form was exaggerated but quite charming. The whole New Year painting is bright in color and has a lot of details, and even the tiger hair must be rooted. "The Year of the Tiger is a painting of the Year of the Mother and the Tiger, which means that the tiger is mighty, thriving, peaceful and auspicious."
△ "Tiger Tiger Shengwei" Tiger Year Painting
According to Gu Xiaoci, the theme of the Year of the Tiger painting created this time comes from the mother and child Tiger Year painting of Wuqiang in Hengshui, Hebei Province. "Tiger" and "protector" are harmonized to bless the peace and healthy growth of future generations; tigers and "fu" and "rich" are harmonious, which has the meaning of good fortune and wealth.
The reporter learned that the creation of this engraved and printed New Year painting took more than a month. "The New Year paintings are made by engraving, and even the seals are five colors in total, and five plates are carved." Gu Xiaoci told reporters that the plate is made up of a number of plates, such as gluttony, so it is called the plate, also known as woodcut watermark, which is a unique traditional reproduction process in China and is known as the "art of re-creation". Each New Year painting requires the use of several plates. When printing, after printing one color, you need to wait for the drying before overprinting the next color. "The most difficult thing is chromatic printing, and the positioning requires the master to touch it with his hand and then debug it." Gu Xiaoci told reporters, "This work uses Tang Pear wood engraving, after writing samples, samples, leads, pulling threads and knives, picking knives, shoveling, brushing and other steps, this work is perfectly presented, is one of the representative works of contemporary engraving and printing technology." ”
△ The engraving used in the New Year painting
Nie Zhengqun, president of Yangzhou Guangling Ancient Books Engraving and Printing Agency, told reporters that since 2018, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has carried out a series of activities of "New Year Paintings Returning to the Spring Festival", with the concept of "integrating into modern life and carrying forward contemporary values" to promote the faster and better integration of traditional crafts represented by New Year paintings into modern life.