People's Daily Shijiazhuang, January 30 (Shangfan) "New Year paintings pay attention to the noon stickers on the Chinese New Year's Eve. Use your own beaten paste, good stickiness, no glue. Paste the new door god, the new blessing word, hang the new Spring League, this new year begins, leaving the bad ones in the past. Ma Xiqin, the representative inheritor of Wuqiang's woodblock prints, said.
Wu Qiangnian painted "Lion Rolling Hydrangea Ball". Courtesy of Wuqiang County Rong Media Center
Wuqiang Woodblock Prints (Wuqiang New Year Paintings for short) are folk art, named after the wuqiang county in Hengshui City, Hebei Province. Wuqiang New Year painting has a long history, starting about the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and has a history of nearly a thousand years. Its printing adopts the traditional woodblock water color overprinting technique, with full composition, exaggerated shape, rough lines and vivid tones. In 2006, Wu Qiang's new year paintings were selected into the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection list. In June 2007, Ma Xiqin was named by the Ministry of Culture as "Representative Inheritor of Wuqiang Woodblock Prints of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project".
Ma Xiqin is a native of Xiguan Village, Jieguan Town, Wuqiang County, Hengshui City, Hebei Province. He was fascinated by engraving since childhood, and used his spare time in middle school to engrave seals and seals. After graduating from middle school in 1975, he entered the Wuqiang Painting Factory to learn engraving, and in 1986, he was transferred to the Wuqiang New Year Painting Museum.
"In 1985, the Wuqiang New Year Painting Museum was established, the New Year paintings were protected, and many old woodblocks were preserved." Ma Xiqin said, "Wu Qiang New Year paintings are folk art, grounded in the ground, reflecting the lives of ordinary people, such as the Zodiac, the Nine-Nine Cold Removal Chart, the Stove King, and the most is the door god." At the time of the New Year, it is pasted at home, the door god wards off evil spirits, the word fu is blessed, and the spring is auspicious. ”
Folk customs, farming, historical allusions... All are the subjects of Wu Qiangnian paintings, and the folk customs and national spirit are all integrated. Wu Qiangnian paintings often decorate the picture with artistic techniques such as harmonic sounds, metaphors, symbols, etc., that is, the mascot of secular identity is selected as the representative to express the good wishes of the people for blessings and good fortune. For example, magpies and plum blossoms mean "happy on the eyebrows", lotus flowers and carp mean "more than a year in a row", peonies and vases mean "peace and wealth" and so on. At the same time, the drawings are also as complete as possible, with little time to spare, expressing people's good wishes for a full and complete life.
"There are four main processes in the production of Wuqiang New Year paintings: drawing, engraving, printing, and mounting." Ma Xiqin told his apprentices at the Hengshui Wuqiang New Year Painting Museum, "A very important process for making New Year paintings is engraving, in order to ensure that the woodblock can continue to be printed without losing the original effect when it is worn after a large number of brushing, the carving must be strictly made to 'steep knife vertical line', and the protruding line must have a certain depth..."
Wu Qiang woodblock print engraving. Courtesy of Wuqiang County Rong Media Center
"I entered this industry since I graduated from junior high school, and now I have been working for decades, and I have received more than a dozen apprentices before and after." Ma Xiqin said, "In addition to the love for New Year paintings, there is also a sense of mission in the body. I hope to do my part to protect the treasures of national culture and pass on the paintings of Wu Qiangnian from generation to generation. ”