Appreciating New Year's paintings, looking for New Year's flavors, and tasting New Year's customs, Songjiang District's 2024 "New Life, New Fashion, New Year's Paintings" - our well-off life art creation and display works tour exhibition was recently launched in Songjiang District New Era Civilization Practice Center, various street and town sub-centers, and various new era civilization practice positions and stations. The children in the community watched the exhibition, studied and appreciated the New Year paintings at the new era civilization practice position at the door of their homes, savored the characteristic folk customs of the New Year in different regions, and celebrated the New Year of the Dragon together.
On January 31, Zhang Jing, who lives in Nanlongtan Garden, Yueyang Street, and her friends, accompanied by their parents, went to the Yueyang Street New Era Civilization Practice Sub-center. At the scene, the colorful and vivid and interesting New Year paintings on the wall set off the exhibition hall with a prosperous and full of New Year's flavor. The children followed in the footsteps of the volunteers one by one, discussing the various elements of the painting and recommending their favorite one to each other.
"I like this one the most, there are dumplings, Spring Festival couplets, and Chinese New Year's Eve meals, and our family celebrates the New Year like this every year!" "I especially like this New Year's painting of writing Spring Festival couplets and visiting the market, and I will also follow my grandfather to write Spring Festival couplets during the New Year, which feels very kind!" "I found that many of these paintings have elements of dragon dance! Everyone is parading around with all kinds of dragons, this is the special feature of the Year of the Dragon......, right?" The children happily shared and conveyed the unique style and connotation of many New Year paintings, and this scene of enthusiastically visiting the exhibits and New Year's customs was also frequently staged in the new era civilization practice positions in various streets and towns.
As an important part of the Spring Festival culture, the art style of New Year paintings is unique and has a myriad of meanings, which not only contains the precious essence of humanity and art, but also celebrates vivid folk legends and folk culture. The Jiangnan Bazaar where gongs and drums are noisy and the dragon lanterns are leisurely, the snow-capped and colorful scenery of the north, and the characteristic folk customs of joy and tulou basking in blessings...... Most of the New Year's paintings in this exhibition are created by painters from all over the country in combination with the folk traditions of the region and the style of the new era, which not only inherits the customs and traditions of the year, but also outlines the new style of the times.
In order to let the children feel the style characteristics and birth process of New Year's paintings more deeply and intuitively, in the theme activity of "Appreciating New Year's Paintings, Celebrating the New Year" held on the 29th day of the lunar month, the Songjiang District New Era Civilization Practice Center invited Songjiang District folk artist Xu Honghe to take the children to try the creation of New Year's paintings on the spot, and taste the joyful and festive atmosphere in the New Year's paintings. "When we were young, New Year's pictures could be said to be part of the flavor of the New Year. I also hope that this characteristic culture full of New Year's flavor can also take root and grow in the hearts of today's children. Xu Honghe said with emotion.
It is understood that during the Spring Festival, the 2024 "New Life, New Fashion, New Year's Painting" in Songjiang District - our well-off life art creation and display exhibition will also enter the Yunjian Hall Humanistic Activity Center, and 2 Songjiang District Civilization Practice Characteristic Parks, 22 artist residency destinations, 7 art galleries and 48 cultural non-governmental organizations will also carry out online and offline New Year's painting exhibition and display activities, bringing more citizens a distinctive and full of aesthetic experience.
Text: Li Shuang
Photo: Li Shuang Courtesy of the interviewee
Editor: Han Jiayi