Chinese New Year Paintings
2 min readChinese New Year Paintings can date back to the Qin and Han Dynasties. In the Song Dynasty block printing was in-vented, and the New Year Paintings became very popular. Up to the Qing Dynasty its popularity kept increasing, not only popular in china but also popular in India, Japan, Vietnam.
Chinese New Year Paintings are pictures put up on thedoors, room walls and windows on the Chinese New Year.
They were used to create an air of happiness, to ward off disasters and evil spirits, and to pray the heaven for the good luck.
Chinese New Year Paintings show the simple imagination of the ordinary people.The themes of the paintings vary with the places，such as Gate God on the door，Kitchen God in the kitchen，Money God in the sittingroom，etc.
Chinese New Year Paintings use very bright colors like red，green，yellow to catch eyeballs.
Usually Chinese New Year Paintings have four famous types.
（1）Jinzhu New Year Paitings in Sichuan
Jinzhu New Year Paitings have a long history.They are the oldest among the new year paintings.The most typical is that the pictures are all painted by hand one by one.The same block printing has the different artist effect by different artists.
Jinzhu New Year Paitings mainly use peach red，grass green，gold yellow and sky blue.They are very particular about paper and pens and colors.
（2）Yangliuqing New Year Paitings in Tianjin
Yangliuqing New Year Paitings have a history of 600 years，dating back to the Yuan Dynasty.It started by a folk painter，who came to Yangliu Town to make some pictures in the Spring Festival for sale.And it developed all the way to the Qing Dynasty.
Nowadays in Tianjin，Yuchenghao Painting Village ，founded by Huo Yutang is the most famous.
（3）Yangjiabu New Year Paitings in Weifang，Shandong
Block printing books appeared at the same time as block printing paintings.Yangjiabu New Year Paitings together with Yanhliuqing in Tianjin and Taohuawu in Suzhou，are called Three Big Block Printing New Year Paingtings.It originated from the late Ming Dynasty.It is completely made by hand.
Yangjiabu New Year Paitings are characteristic of broad ideas，rich imagination，three primary colors，crude lines and honest style.
（4）Huatauwu New Year Paitings in Suzhou，Jiangsu
Huatauwu New Year Paitings came to its perfect style in the late Ming Dynasty.There were about 50 painting mills.
The paintings were well-known throughout the country and the world.Huataowu in the south and Yangliuqing in the north were called two big centers of New Year Paitings.Huatauwu New Year Paitings preferred simple hand-made style，five colors of red，yellow，green，black，and blue.They are bright in color，delicate in picture composition，clear in order and rich in decoration.
