Folk art treasures in the Chinese New Year Picture woodcut tradition are to be recorded so they may be enjoyed by future generations. The initiative was launched recently in Tianjin by the Office for the Preservation of Chinese Folk Cultural Heritage. Guangming Daily reports sources at the office, which operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, describing this as the first ever large-scale survey of this part of the national heritage.

Cultural researchers and scholars will carry out in-depth fieldwork at scores of locations well known for this ancient fine-art form. They will work closely with local people as they pursue their mission to find out the state of the art. They will seek out the modern day disciples of the form and look for surviving examples throughout the neighborhoods.

This precious cultural treasure will be carefully photographed, video recorded and properly documented.

The program will run for two to three years. There are plans to publish a 20-volume Collection of Chinese Woodcut New Year Pictures and a Who's Who of the Disciples of the Chinese New Year Picture Tradition. A database of the folk art will also be established.

New Year Pictures are fine art works made using a carved wooden block and considered to be in the best traditions of Chinese folk art. Sometimes described as the "TV of the ancients" the style has for long been an integral part of family activities at the time of the lunar new year festival.

Full of festival atmosphere and rich in vibrant colors the pictures cover a wide range of subjects. The best known of the traditional representations have become much loved by Chinese people in all walks of life. Many New Year Pictures, steeped as they are in folk art heritage and classics in their own right, have become regionally or even nationally recognized cultural icons.

But socio-economic patterns have been changing and lifestyles have been transformed. The familiar New Year Pictures were at risk of becoming forgotten with the tradition fading away into the mists of time.

But as globalization comes to the fore, people are turning back towards these old symbols of national spirit and pride. Once again they are being valued as spiritual and cultural treasures and even thought of as a part of the very heritage.

But knowledge of the art form has grown vague and this has been coupled with a lack of awareness on preservation issues. The current position is confused and irreplaceable works are becoming lost at an increasing rate.

The driving force for this major survey is the Chinese Society of Folk Artists, which operates under the auspices of the "Specially-Commissioned Program of State Foundation of Social Sciences."

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, January 28, 2003)