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The New Year Picture is a unique art form in China that boasts a long history and far-reaching influence. During theSpring Festival(Chinese New Year), the Chinese decorate their homes with manyNew Year Pictures, the best of which can be found inYangliuqing.

Many New Year Picture artists are farmers who express their good wishes and appreciation of art and life via colorful scenes embedded in the works, exerting a subtle influence on ordinary people. The folk woodblock New Year Pictures can, therefore, be regarded as an art of the farmers in terms of production and function.

A town located in the western suburbs of North China'sTianjinMunicipality, Yangliuqing is one of the earliest places to employ engravers to print New Year Pictures, which were first produced between 1573 and 1620.

Most Yangliuqing New Year Picture workshops were namedafter its creators. For instance, the Dai Lianzen New Year Picture Workshop and Qi Jianlong New Year Picture Workshop of the early period were very famous. In the most prosperous period of New Year Pictureprinting, hundreds of painters and printing artisans gathered in the region. Relatively large workshops usually hired dozens of workers who worked at more than 10 printing stations. Every autumn, businessmen came to Yangliuqing tobuy the pictures and then sold them elsewhere.

After the founding of new China in 1949, the People's Government paid much attention to inheriting and developing this old folk art. Now, it not only organizes people to collect and research these traditional works, but also encourages innovation. Many painters interested in Yangliuqing New Year Pictures strive to develop this art, creating many new works to reflect the new era and real life.