The Value and Significance of Sorting out and Researching Overseas Relics of Chinese Folk Art in the New Era: Taking the collation, research and publication of rare Chinese woodblock prints collected overseas as an example

Paintings by Ladies of the Qing Dynasty (overprinted by hand) Gusu prints from the Dresden State Art Collection

　　Chinese woodblock prints are a fruitful flower blossoming from the land of Chinese folk culture and are the "dragon heads of Chinese folk art". In 2003, mr. Feng Jicai, a famous contemporary writer, scholar and educator in the field of intangible cultural heritage research and protection, initiated, presided over and relied on the chinese nationalities association to organize and carry out one of the major achievements of the "Chinese Folk Cultural Heritage Rescue Project", that is, the historic publication of the 22-volume "Integration of Chinese Woodblock New Year Paintings", which is not only an important part of the rescue project of Chinese folk cultural heritage, but also a cultural project jointly engaged in by people from painting production areas in various years across the country and authoritative scholars in China. At the same time, it is also the first time in China's history that the collection and collation of more than 50 years of painting production areas and their heirlooms has been comprehensively and systematically carried out. Among them, what is more meaningful and valuable is the collation and publication of the overseas Collection of New Year Paintings" and "Russian Collection Volumes" and "Japanese Collection Volumes". This is also the first time in China to use the strength of the state to systematically and large-scale collection and collation of overseas Chinese New Year paintings, opening a new era of systematic collation and research of overseas Chinese New Year painting collections in the domestic academic circles.

　　Since the late Ming Dynasty, Western missionaries to China and early European sinologists have collected, sorted out and studied a large number of folk relics and related folk literature scattered in China through purposeful fieldwork. In particular, some technical literature and folk traditional crafts and crafts that were not valued by the domestic people at that time were lost abroad. The primary task of the academic circles in sorting out and researching the rare Chinese New Year paintings collected overseas is to comprehensively and systematically find out the information of overseas Tibetan places and their collections. In particular, the search and grasp of the information of overseas national cultural institutions and some private collectors, in the form of establishing a database, catalogs and sorts out the collections of Chinese New Year paintings in overseas Tibet, Tibetan places and other information.

　　As far as we know, in addition to private collections, there are nearly 100 institutions in more than a dozen countries that have a large number of Chinese New Year paintings. Such as the Hermitage Museum, Hermitage Museum, Oriental Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Columbia University Library, Boston Museum, Nelson Arkins Museum, etc., the British Museum and Library in the United Kingdom, the Asian and African Library of the University of London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Dutch National Library, the Dresden State Art Collection in Germany, the Leipzig Library, the Waseda University Library, the Tenri University Library, the Haiduna Art Museum, etc., the Asia Society in France and other institutions. These institutions all have a considerable collection of Chinese folk New Year paintings from the late Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China. At that time, the collection of paintings in these years was mainly disseminated by Western missionaries and sinologists who came to China through purchase and collection and research of academic materials. Representative figures include the French missionary Lu Shixuan, the Dutch sinologist Gao Ting, the French sinologist Sha Qi, the diplomat Du Boqiu, the Russian botanist Comaro, the sinologist Alec, the artist Winoradov, the American scholar Kexun, the Polish scholar Xia Bailong, the Japanese scholar Kuroda Genji, Nagao Ryuzo, and so on.

　　The collections of Chinese New Year paintings collected by museums in different countries have also roughly formed their own characteristics due to their historical backgrounds and different channels for entering the collection. For example, the collection of Chinese New Year paintings in Russian museums is mainly based on the New Year paintings of the northern region represented by Yang Liuqing in Tianjin. Germany and Japan are dominated by New Year paintings in southern China represented by Suzhou Peach Blossom Dock. The Collection of French New Year Paintings is dominated by northern Willow Youth Paintings and Folk Paper Horses, especially the Beijing Paper Horse Collection. The collection of New Year paintings in the United States is relatively rich, such as the Arkins Museum, which contains fine New Year paintings from Zhuxian Town, Henan, and the Library of Congress and Princeton University in the United States, which contain woodblock New Year paintings with the theme of the Xinhai Revolution.

　　For example, the Suzhou "Gusu Edition" New Year Paintings collected by the Dresden State Art Collection in Germany are based on the purchase of Western merchants in China from the perspective of Chinese "folk art" after the Great European Navigation Era in the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the most important collections is the printmaking gallery of the Zwinger Palace at the Dresden State Art Collection, formerly the palace of August II, Elector of Poland in Dresden and later King of Poland. During his reign, he was obsessed with Chinese art and sent people around Europe to buy and collect Chinese art, and the "Gusu Edition" New Year painting was one of the important collections. In addition, he also has a staggering collection of Jingdezhen porcelain and other folk paintings from the Qing Dynasty. After the "Gusu Version" New Year painting entered Europe, it was sought after by the Upper Class of Europe and became a typical art representative of the popular period of European "Chinese style". The traditional Suzhou "Gusu Edition" New Year paintings are not only numerous in Germany, but also exquisite in appearance. In particular, the museum also retains the "Foreign Style Gusu Edition" works with Western copperplate engraving style created by Westerners in Suzhou from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, which are extremely rare in China. Therefore, whether in terms of quantity or quality, Germany's "Gusu version" New Year paintings are far beyond The domestic. Due to the loss of research materials, the academic research in this field in the domestic art academic circles is also very weak. In fact, in addition to the collection of "Gusu Edition" New Year paintings, the Dresden State Art Collection not only has more than 1,000 folk paintings produced by the Jiangnan region and Guangdong Thirteen Elements from the late Ming to the early Qing Dynasty, but also has about 800 "Chinese style" works of art made by European painters imitating Chinese prints and paintings. These works, together with the "Gusu Edition" New Year paintings, played a pivotal role in the cultural and artistic exchanges between China and the West in the 17th and 18th centuries, and are an important witness to the spread and influence of "Learning from the East to the West" and the spread and influence of traditional Chinese craft culture to the West. Although they were drawn up in the original catalogue as early as 1738, the collection has been in the dust for more than 200 years since it was compiled in the catalogue. Until 2015, the Dresden State Art Collection launched the "Saxon Palace Chinese Style and Chinese Printmaking and Painting Collection Research" project, inviting Mr. Feng Jicai to train a young doctor in the research direction of New Year paintings, the Humboldt scholar Wang Xiaoming of Germany to study the collection of New Year paintings, and achieved fruitful results. From November 2021 to February 2022, the museum held academic seminars and months-long exhibitions in combination with its research results, attracting a large number of European scholars and tourists to come to the exhibition and exchange ideas, and to discuss the theme of traditional Chinese folk new year paintings and the daily life of Chinese folks reflected.

　　In 2017, Hubei Fine Arts Publishing House launched the collation and compilation of the "Rare Books of Ancient Chinese New Year Paintings collected overseas". The book plans to spend four years to clarify and sort out the collection of ancient Chinese new year paintings overseas, and to excavate and sort out the relevant documents and cultural relics that have been scattered overseas as comprehensively as possible. This is another academic research work on overseas Chinese folk New Year paintings, through looking back and rethinking the way and experience of "Chinese culture going out", so that people can see the impact of Chinese folk art overseas, improve the consciousness and self-confidence of national culture, so that the lost overseas folk cultural heritage can "return to the mother's home" in another way, and contribute to the rejuvenation of Chinese national culture.

　　In short, the relics of Chinese woodblock prints collected overseas have been a window for the world to understand Chinese culture, and the collation and study of it is also a cultural business card for Chinese folk art to go to the world in the future. Excavating, summarizing and promoting it is not only the need for the development of folk art in the new era and new journey, but also an important task for the prosperity of Chinese folk art work and the construction of a socialist cultural power in the new era and new journey.

Author: Wang Tuo, Associate Professor, Research Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Soochow University