Yangliuqing woodblock prints captured between covers

[Photo provided to China Daily]

The most popular subject for Yangliuqing woodblock print is children. A plump baby holding a large fish with a lotus in the background is the classic image of Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints.

"Fish" has a similar pronunciation as "surplus", and "lotus" has a similar pronunciation as "successive" in the Chinese language.

Besides artistic value, many of the prints have important historical value as they vividly depict folk life, providing clues about what people wore and how they lived hundreds of years ago. The prints depict naughty children playing in school, beautiful women eating crab banquets in a courtyard garden and farmers winnowing crops during the harvest season.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, new designs of contemporary life were also reflected in Yangliuqing woodblock prints.

In 2006, the State Council included Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints in the first group of National Intangible Cultural Heritage listings. And a museum dedicated to the prints opened in Tianjin in 2011 with more than 10,000 prints and 6,400 woodblocks dating back to the Ming Dynasty.

Publisher Tianjin Yangliuqing Fine Arts Press has printed 3,000 copies of the book, which can be purchased online and in major bookstores.

Wang Hailing contributed to the story.