ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project would not be possible without the dedicated efforts of my lead

supervisor, Dr. Hsingyuan Tsao, who provided me with the invaluable learning

experiences, contacts, and research opportunities that led to its fulfillment. I am also

deeply indebted to Dr. Katherine Hacker for directing me towards many of the key

debates between art history and anthropology that have shaped this study. A special

thanks goes to Dr. Catherine Swatek, for imparting her profound knowledge of Chinese

vernacular literature and drama, to Dr. Leo Shin for sharing his expertise in the history of

late imperial China, and to Dr. Diana Lary, Dr. Marvin Cohodas, and Dr. Sharalyn

Orbaugh for their insightful comments during the final stages of this project. I am also

very grateful to Dr. Ellen Johnston Laing, a leading expert in Chinese popular art and

nianhua who provided invaluable suggestions for polishing this study.

I must extend my gratitude to Dr. Elizabeth Johnson for assisting with the

preliminary research conducted at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, BC, and

to Dr. Daniel Overmyer and Dr. Paul Crowe for guiding me in the study of Chinese

popular religion. I am also indebted to artist and professor Gu Xiong, who shared his

hands-on knowledge of Sichuan’s printmaking traditions and who invited me to study his

private collection of Mianzhu nianhua. A most heartfelt thanks goes to Jean Kares and

Dr. Nate Bohy for their diligent efforts in copyediting and proofreading this text, to Dr.

Emily Beausoleil for leading me to key texts in critical theory, and to Yanlong Guo for

helping me locate research materials in China.

In Sichuan, I am ever grateful to my mentor Liu Zhumei, an accomplished artist

and researcher at the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum, and to Ning Zhiqi, the lead researcher

and director of Mianzhu’s Cultural Relics Bureau. With the support of Liu and Ning, I

was able to conduct in-depth interviews in Mianzhu’s printshops and to gain access to

many historic archives of Mianzhu nianhua. I am also indebted to Hou Rong, editor-inchief

at Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing, for providing out-of-print resources on Sichuan’s

nianhua history and for arranging my visit to the Sichuan Theater Research Institute. I

am grateful to art historian Gao Wen for showing me his private collection of Chinese

woodblock prints and paintings, and to Han Gang, Si Daoan, Jinlan Gong, and Gao

Hongzhu for their warm hospitality during my travels and for their superb translations of

the Mianzhu dialect and its many obscure references. A very special thanks goes to Kris

Balfe and Wang Hong for assisting with photography.

I am truly honored to attribute the credit for this project to this excellent

community of friends and colleagues on both sides of the great Pacific Ocean.

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