Chapter Two: The Power of Ephemera: Ritual Praxis and the Contested Rise of the

Nianhua Marketplace

Although Mianzhu is often touted as one China’s “four great nianhua centers” of

the Qing dynasty, its historic printing industry was actually known as the “door deity

trade” 􀫊􀴪􀏺 before the term nianhua was nationally popularized during the twentieth

century.109 The door deity trade earned its name by producing a far greater number of

door deity prints compared to any other type of print. According to one estimate,

Mianzhu’s printshops collectively produced twelve million door deity prints per year

during the late nineteenth century, compared to just two million prints produced in other

formats.110 Today, the works designed for temporary display on the household door are

once again the most widespread and dominant commodities in the winter nianhua

markets. These works fall under the broad category of nianhua, yet they are still

referenced in Mianzhu by their specific names, as door deities, spring couplets, or lintel

hangings. This chapter will focus on the resurgent production, circulation, and

consumption of these seasonal nianhua, which adorn the doorways of virtually every

neighborhood in Mianzhu. They form a distinct body of works linked together by certain

shared rhythms and spaces, yet they also reveal the changing trends in the marketplace

where new modes of production and use are continuously being introduced.

The majority of these works are now digitally printed in mass quantities using a

variety of printing machines, while a smaller number are still being produced using

109 Feng Tiren 􀙿􀸸􀲥, “Mianzhu shanghui shihua” 􀫥􁇰􀴅􀟶􀵎􀟅 [Historical accounts of Mianzhu's trade

associations] in Mianzhu wenshi ziliao ji 􀫥􁇰􀻓􀵎􁈧􀨘􀠠􀀁14 [Anthology of Mianzhu's historical studies vol.

14], ed. Wang Peisheng 􀺦􀮡􀴳 and Zhang Changlu 􁅦􀓄􀩢 (Mianzhu: Sichuan sheng mianzhu xian

zhengxie xuexi wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui, 1995), 13.

110 Gao Wen 􀛚􀻓, Hou Shiwu 􀞥􀵗􀻳, and Ning Zhiqi 􀭡􁆽􀰅, Mianzhu nianhua 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂 [Mianzhu new

year pictures] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1990), 11.

woodblock printing and hand-painting techniques that have been kept alive in Mianzhu’s

lineage-holding workshops. Although many leading folk art scholars have lamented the

disappearance of the traditional woodblock printing industry as a result of state

circumscription and the introduction of mechanized printing technologies, the situation in

Mianzhu resists such reductive assessments.111 As discussed in the introduction, the

increased circulation of commercially printed nianhua did not destroy the industry but

actually catalyzed and revitalized it, spawning a rich repertoire of ritual print activities in

the community. It is this unique amalgam of old and new practices that sets Mianzhu

apart from other historic printing sites in China, as it presents a complex picture of an

evolving industry that never completely died out, but continued to evolve and adapt to the

changing conditions of the marketplace. By limiting the discussion to these works, I will

be able to hone in on how these developments are taking shape on the ground.

In critiquing the resurgence of these seasonal nianhua, I am primarily interested

in how the very notion of nianhua is being reshaped and recast within these winter

markets and their ritual use in the home. I will argue that the door deities, spring couplets,

and hanging money that flood the markets every year are not necessarily fixed categories

defined by their production methods or modes of representation. Showing up in both

urban and rural neighborhoods, these works come in a wide variety of printed and painted

formats, including handmade prints and paintings, glossy mass-produced prints, and

homemade strips of calligraphy. At times, even works that are not designed for ritual use

111 As discussed in the introduction, the two comprehensive and authoritative histories of nianhua written

by Wang Shucun and Bo Songnian locate the demise of the traditional nianhua industry in the 1950s, with

the state circumscription of the popular printing industry. These texts are: Wang Shucun􀺦􀶎􀕨, Zhongguo

nianhua shi 􁇏􀝓􀭍􀟂􀵎 [Chinese nianhua history] (Beijing: Beijing gongyi meishu chubanshe, 2002), and

Bo Songnian 􀐊􀶾􀭍􀀍 Zhongguo nianhua shi 􁇏􀝓􀭍􀟂􀵎􀀁[Chinese nianhua history] (Shenyang: Liaoning

meishu chubanshe, 1986).

end up displayed as door deities, including advertisements or household objects that bear

some kind of association with the auspicious. In other words, a wide range of images and

objects are made to perform the role of nianhua when they are strategically positioned

and renewed in the home or marketplace.

When examined in their lived contexts, these works push for a dramatic

rethinking of what constitutes a work of nianhua, which has been largely defined around

modes of representation rather than modes of presentation. By recasting nianhua in

terms of its performed roles, this chapter addresses the many ephemeral goods that have

been long excluded from nianhua studies as either vulgar or imitative versions of the real

thing. To assist in this effort, I will draw on Catherine Bell’s theory of ritual practice,

which stresses the agentive and performative dimensions of ritualizing processes, which

are always evolving and geared towards achieving specific results. Shifting away from

the structural analysis of “ritual systems” and towards a study of “ritual praxis,” Bell

argues for an examination of “how a particular community or culture ritualizes” and

“when and why ritualization is deemed the effective thing to do.”112 Bell’s emphasis on

ritualizing processes is particularly useful for examining how nianhua are continually

redefined and recast by ritual practices that are geared towards livelihood and other daily

needs.

In particular, Bell’s model stresses an inclusive view of ritual in its lived contexts

as reflecting “the full spectrum of ways of acting within any given culture, not as some a

priori category of action totally independent of other forms of action.”113 Instead of

approaching rituals as “clear and autonomous rites,” Bell therefore stresses a conception

112 Catherine Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 81.

113 Ibid., 82.

of ritual activity as unfolding processes, as “methods, traditions and strategies of

‘ritualization.’”114 In the case of the nianhua industry, this translates into a more inclusive

perspective on the range of ritual goods and activities that continue to shape the industry

despite periods of social upheaval and reform. In posing the questions of when and why

certain images are taken up in ritualizing processes, it is possible to examine the evolving

nature of the nianhua industry, rather than judge it against a seemingly coherent and

untroubled past.

The ephemeral nianhua of the winter markets require great attentiveness to how

meaning is continually performed, rather than fixed in the physical object itself. The

highly unstable status of these fleeting works resists fixed interpretations of any kind, as

they are radically embedded within a flow of ongoing practices and processes tied to both

human activities, as well as exposure to the natural elements of wind, sun, and rain. The

fragile door deities, spring couplets, and hanging money are continually caught in a cycle

of renewal and decay, making it almost impossible to pin down a reliable “object” of

analysis. Instead of attempting to resolve this by isolating or “freezing” certain works in

time and space, I am more interested in how the movement and transformative lifecycles

of the works acquire social significance and agency in different situations. In other

words, how can nianhua be reformulated as agentive processes, trajectories, or

propensities? When and how are they harnessed or deployed to support people’s

everyday needs and livelihood?

In his study of Ming dynasty visual and material culture, Craig Clunas

emphasizes the agency of objects in marking out temporal and spatial regimes in the

114 Ibid.

Ming marketplaces.115 Clunas points to how the timed production and circulation of

many everyday goods (prints, paintings, bowls, vases, textiles, coins, clothing) reinforced

imperial time, seasonal time, or the family time of progressive generations. These objects

activated different ritual activities at different times of year and usually bore visible

markers of these temporal regimes. Clunas thus points to how the overlapping temporal

cycles could be “handled and seen” at all levels of society from the social elite to the very

poorest, so that “no one body of thing occupied the time and the space of the Ming

without contest.”116 In taking up issues of timed circulation and consumption, Clunas

emphasizes both an object’s visible “marks of agency” as well as its physical movement

through time as space as part of its potential effect.117

Taking Clunas’ work as a cue, I will also stress how Mianzhu’s seasonal nianhua

circulate in ways that reinforce temporal and spatial regimes. Most significantly, the

annual influx of nianhua in markets and homes marks out the auspicious dates and

rhythms of the lunar calendar in ways that directly support livelihood. The flow of

ephemeral works also transforms everyday spaces into sites of ritual activity, be it the

temporary street market, household doorway, or nianhua workshop. While Clunas

focuses primarily on the visual markers of temporal agency, such as reign dates and

painted depictions of seasonal imagery, I will also examine processes of appropriation,

where images and objects intended for one use are redeployed and re-circulated as ritual

items. I will thus focus more closely on evolving processes of ritualization, to highlight

115 Craig Clunas, Empire of Great Brightness: Visual and Material Cultures of Ming China (Honolulu:

University of Hawai’i Press, 1997), 1368-1644.

116 Ibid., 32, 52.

117 Ibid., 32.

the active, conscious, and performative dimensions of these activities within Mianzhu’s

winter nianhua markets.

In shifting the analytical focus onto the role of nianhua within ritual practices, I

do not mean to downplay the significance of the object or relegate it to a passive role

within ritual activity. Instead, I will argue that the fleeting and ephemeral nature of these

works blurs the boundaries between the material and mental realms, or between what

Diana Taylor calls the “archive and the repertoire.”118 The works examined here offer a

unique opportunity to move beyond these binaries and explore the radically dialectical

interactions between objects and practices. To quote Clunas again, one must avoid

imposing a false hierarchy between objects and practices: “I am writing from a

conviction that the relations between agents, relations in which the work is embedded,

illuminate the object, but that equally the object enacts those social relations. In this

dialectical engagement neither enjoys unquestioned primacy.”119

Divided into three major sections, this chapter will unpack the processes of

nianhua ritualization taking place across these interconnected realms: the seasonal

marketplace, the home, and the lineage-holding workshop. In each section, I will include

firsthand observations of the works in situ and interviews with nianhua users and makers

to draw forth the performative aspects of emerging ritual strategies. On a macroscopic

level, these three realms join together to form the core of the seasonal nianhua industry,

yet the examples show that they are not coherently unified by a shared set of ideals or

beliefs. Instead, the ritual practices emerging in each realm reveal diverse conceptions of

118 Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham:

Duke University Press, 2003), 16.

119 Craig Clunas, Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press,

2003), 13.

agency that are creatively geared towards meeting the shifting challenges of daily life.

Thus I am deploying the notion of the “performative” to indicate how these practices are

intended to achieve specific results and aims.120 In taking up the cyclic movements of

nianhua across these three realms, I will therefore stress how nianhua’s attributed power

to “pursue the auspicious, repel the portentous” serves as an open-ended site of

contestation tied to people’s immediate needs and aims.

Harnessing the Seasonal Nianhua Market

During the years immediately following the Cultural Revolution, Mianzhu

experienced a strong resurgence of open-air street markets. These temporary markets are

locally known as jishi 􀠢􀵧, which is often translated as a “periodic market” or “market

fair.” The increase in scope and frequency of such markets was in line with a national

trend, where liberal economic reforms implemented under Deng Xiaoping led to a

widespread growth in rural periodic markets.121 In Mianzhu, as in many other rural

townships, these markets vary widely in scale and the types of goods that are sold.

Smaller scale markets rotate through the surrounding rural areas providing agricultural

goods and simple everyday items. Larger markets bring more specialized items to the

community and are usually held in conjunction with seasonal festivals of the lunar

calendar or on religious holidays, such as the birthdates of popular deities. In this section,

120 I am referencing here the classical notion of the “performative” as first set forth by J. L. Austin who

theorized “performative utterances” as a form of speech that can understood as “ doing something rather

than merely saying something.” J. L. Austin, “Performative Utterances,” in Philosophical Papers, ed. J. O.

Urmson and G. J. Warnock (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), 233-52.

121 William Skinner, a scholarly authority on China’s rural marketing systems, has documented how the

“remarkable increase” of the periodic market was fueled by a relaxation of controls over agricultural

production, marketing, and the use of private plots, leading to their increase of over thirty percent in the

five years between 1978 and 1983. William Skinner, “Rural Marketing in China: Repression and Revival,”

The China Quarterly 103 (1985): 406-408.

I will examine the large winter street markets that circulate a changing variety of printed

and painted ephemera as ritually efficacious nianhua. As competing vendors jostle for

position and status in these markets, these ritualized gatherings continually adapt to new

technologies, shifting public demand, and changing regulations imposed by the state.

This is evident in a comparison of two photographs that document the recent

developments of the nianhua street markets of Mianzhu. A black and white photograph

taken in the early 1980s shows a simple makeshift stand that is put together with a few

pieces of wood to create a long table, which is completely covered from end to end with a

variety of printed works (fig. 21). A curious crowd is gathered around the stand to

examine the works, which appear to be commercially printed works, judging by the thick

and glossy appearance of the papers. In a different context, these prints may not be

necessarily viewed as ritual goods. However, the strategic timing of these markets during

the Lunar New Year season actively reintroduces these prints to the marketplace as

ritually efficacious products for seasonal use. In the wake of the Cultural Revolution,

local residents reengaged with large quantities of ritual ephemera in these marketplaces

long before the state-led nianhua revival got fully underway in Mianzhu.122 Signaling the

political shifts in the marketplace, the colorful print stand stands out in sharp contrast to

the clothing stand behind it, which is selling the blue and gray “Mao suits” that were

widely worn at the time. The prints signal a more relaxed social environment for the

consumption of traditional items, as well as the return of seasonal goods tied to the Lunar

New Year.

122 During the 1980s Mianzhu’s Cultural Affairs Bureau devoted the bulk of their resources towards

launching travel exhibitions of nianhua rather than building up the local nianhua industry.

In contrast, a 2004 color photograph of an urban street in Mianzhu illustrates how

nianhua markets have expanded in scale and scope, with a greater variety of goods and a

more regimented use of street space (fig. 22). Compared to the early 1980s, these markets

are more closely regulated by Mianzhu’s officials, who have tightened their protocols of

collecting taxes and fees from itinerant peddlers. The photograph shows a temporary

street market spread out on the main thoroughfare of a business district, flanked on both

sides by the year-round storefronts that are also selling nianhua. The market is held near

an auspicious landmark, a traditional gateway that can be seen in the background at the

entrance to the boulevard. The area has been closed to motorized traffic and auspicious

red lanterns line the streets on wooden poles, announcing the arrival of the Lunar New

Year festival season.

The street peddlers are selling a combination of digital prints, handmade works,

paper cutouts for display on windows or walls, incense, bells, greeting cards, lanterns,

and children’s toys. In the foreground, sets of gold gilded lintel hangings are laid out for

sale. In the local Mianzhu dialect, these are also known as “hanging money” (guaqian 􀜫

􀰫) or “joy cash” (xiqian 􀼟􀰫), these works are designed to hang off the edge of the

door’s lintel in a row of five pieces to signal the arrival of prosperity and wealth. On

display just behind the lintel hangings, the spring couplets are made with long strips of

red paper bearing hand painted calligraphy of poetic verses for ringing in an auspicious

new year.

In considering the evolution of these periodic markets from the early 1980s to the

present, the works are continually changing, but the markets’ timed appearance during

the twelfth lunar month remains consistent. A vibrant “multichronous marketplace”123 is

seen in both photographs, with permanent storefronts that follow rhythms of the modern

Gregorian calendar alongside a temporary marketplace that marks the rhythms of the

lunar one. These two temporal regimes are harnessed to support livelihood in very

different ways, often marking out an urban-rural divide between the higher-end urban

shops and the street markets filled with rural itinerant traders selling inexpensive ritual

ephemera. The year-round and temporary markets also mark out a spatial hierarchy

between those with permanent access to privatized storefronts and those with only

temporary access to the public space of the street.

The changing configurations of these periodic street markets speak to their

flexible and adaptable nature, as participating vendors use whatever means possible to

sustain their winter sources of livelihood. The rapid growth of these markets in the 1980s

took some scholars by surprise, as many saw urbanization and industrialization as

potential threats to the periodic marketing system. For instance, in his famous 1964 essay

on rural marketing in China, William G. Skinner predicted that the modernization of the

transport system would lead to the disappearance of “traditional standard markets” while

“traditional higher level market towns will have been transformed into modern trading

centres.”124 However, recent studies show that “the continuous rise in attendance and the

appearance of new markets demonstrate that the pivotal effect of modern transport has

not materialized.” According to a study by Rozelle, Benzinger, and Huang, periodic

123 Eugene Cooper critiques the multichronous character of the agricultural activity in Dongyang County,

Zhejiang Province. Responding to the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Alfred Gell on the role of calendars in

agricultural communities, he argues that calendricalal knowledge serves as a both a source of symbolic

capital as well as an instrument of political control and domination. Eugene Cooper, “The Annual Round of

Agricultural Tasks in Dongyang County: Synoptic Illusion or Symbolic Capital?” Asian Folklore Studies

59 (2000): 240.

124 William Skinner, “Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China,” Journal of Asian Studies 2 (Feb.

1965): 195-228.

markets continued to grow because local officials had difficulty taxing them and many

families could not afford to open permanent shops.125 These developments have thus

chastened scholars against blindly equating modernization with the destruction of the

rural marketing system and other traditional forms of exchange.

The changing characteristics of Mianzhu’s winter nianhua markets thus represent

the “agency of the indigenous sector” to reconstitute various forms of trade and

livelihood by adapting to urbanizing trends and by tapping into the popular demand for

ritual goods and services.126 As anthropologist Mayfair Yang points out in her study of

rural Wenzhou, many ritual industries continued to evolve and grow during the post-Mao

era, actually spurred by “new models of capitalism” rather than being displaced or

replaced by them.127 Similarly, in Mianzhu, these winter street markets profited from

both the influx of cheap mass-produced print ephemera and the annual demand for ritual

goods during the Lunar New Year season.

It is important to keep in mind that the seasonal nianhua markets carry a

politicized dimension since nianhua were heavily criticized and banned during the

Cultural Revolution. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, those who came to the winter

markets to sell nianhua faced a social taboo against works that were seen as “feudal

superstition.” While the state’s official sanction of the nianhua revival helped alleviate

this obstacle at the end of the Cultural Revolution, many vendors had to deal with hostile

remarks from the public. According to local printmaker Li Fangfu 􀧙􀙚􀚞, when he heard

125 Scott Rozelle, Vince Benzinger, and Jikun Huang, “Continuity and Change in China’s Rural Periodic

Markets” (working paper, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California

Davis, Davis, CA, 2002).

126 Mayfair Yang, “Putting Global Capitalism in its Place: Economic Hybridity, Bataille, and Ritual

Expenditure,” Current Anthropology 41, no. 4 (2000): 227.

127 Ibid., 227.

the state’s endorsement of nianhua made on public radio in 1979, he immediately began

making woodblock prints to take to the winter print markets. However when he first set

up his stand in the streets, he encountered sharp criticism from local villagers:

I had returned to agricultural work during the Cultural Revolution. When I heard

the announcement on the radio that they were going to renew the nianhua

industry, I hurriedly made some prints in time to set up a stand in the streets for

the winter markets that year. I walked to a nearby village market to sell them, and

a man in the street angrily told me not to sell those old-fashioned works in his

village. I had to inform him that a province-wide nianhua revival was underway

all over Sichuan and that his village was indeed part of Sichuan, so I had every

right to sell my prints in his village. I stood firm in my stand and refused to leave.

Nowadays, everyone admires nianhua and my business is doing well, but that

wasn’t always the case.128

At a time when the status of nianhua was in the midst of transitioning from a banned

object to a desirable market commodity, local printmakers such as Li had to navigate an

uncertain marketplace in order to sell their works. They also faced stiff competition from

the growing number of vendors redistributing digitally printed nianhua, which are sold in

great quantities for much lower prices. Li and many other printmakers were briefly hired

by the Cultural Affairs Bureau in the early 1980s to reproduce works in the state nianhua

collection, but the pay was far too low, so many opted to strike out on their own in the

street markets instead.129 This is a significant indicator that the winter street markets

initially played a more important role in supporting the livelihood of local printmakers

that the state-led nianhua revival. Later in this chapter, I will address in greater detail

how various nianhua workshops repositioned themselves in the marketplace.

128 Li Fangfu, in discussion with the author in Mianzhu, Sichuan, June 2006.

129 Li Fangfu and Chen Xingcai, in discussion with the author in Mianzhu, Sichuan, June 2006.

In taking the bold initiative to produce new works and offer them for sale in an

outdoor stall, Li actively stakes his claim in the emerging industry by participating in the

winter markets, where he physically and verbally defends his right to sell nianhua. His

action can thus be understood as a powerful ritual strategy of reclaiming a lost source of

livelihood while responding to the immediate challenges of the marketplace. It is

significant that the annual cycle of winter markets never ceased during the Cultural

Revolution although the goods that circulated in them changed from year to year. When

the Cultural Revolution drew to a close, these markets were immediately accessible to

those who needed a venue to sell their products. They thus served as a critical catalyst for

the recovering of the winter nianhua industry at the local level.

It is possible to think of these markets as dynamic sites of ritual activity, where

the annual demand for seasonal goods tied to Lunar New Year gives rise to a range of

creative strategies tied to winter livelihood. This relates to Catherine Bell’s point that:

[T]he study of ritual practice has meant a basic shift from looking at activity as

the expression of cultural patterns to looking at it as that which makes and harbors

such patterns. In this view, ritual is more complex than mere communication of

values and views; it is a set of activities that construct particular types of meaning

and values in specific ways…[Rather] than ritual as the vehicle for the expression

of authority, practice theorists tend to explore how ritual is a vehicle for the

construction of relationships of authority and submission.130

The winter street markets can thus be considered sites of ritual potential, where

competing parties negotiate their respective positions while creatively harnessing the

temporal and spatial power of the market.

130 Bell, Ritual, 82.

A brief anecdote here will further capture the highly innovative and performative

nature of the activities shaping the winter street market. In one of the interviews I

conducted with Mianzhu residents, a woman in her mid-fifties named Gong Jinlan 􀜇􀣁􀦧

recounted her childhood experiences of growing up in a rural area and attending the

winter street markets. At the young age of eight or nine, during the years of the Cultural

Revolution, she decided to set up a small stand of her own in the winter street market:

Anybody could go to the winter markets to sell things, so I looked around the

house to see what I could make for the market. I decided to set up a stall selling

cups of sugared water with red food dye added to it to catch people’s attention.

These were easy to make and I could make a few pennies at the market selling

drinks while my grandpa sold peanuts…131

The simple yet rather ingenious act of selling red sugar drinks illustrates how market

practices are spontaneously performed in the interest of making a quick profit with

whatever materials one has at one’s disposal. While cups of red sugar water might not be

palatable at other times of year, they take on special significance in the context of the

Lunar New Year market, when anything with an auspicious association (such as the color

red) could be marketed for ritual use to bring happiness, prosperity, and success in the

coming year. Gong Jinlan’s story shows how all members of the community can

participate in the winter markets, even a young girl with access to a few basic kitchen

supplies. In bringing these drinks to the market, she presents them as ritual goods while

also shaping a marketplace ritual that may be repeated in subsequent years if proven

successful. Her experience captures the competitive spirit of these winter markets, where

vendors attempt to carve out niche markets by creatively exploiting the demand for

131 Gong Jinlan, in discussion with the author in Mianzhu, Sichuan, June 2006.

ritually efficacious goods. It also demonstrates how one can adapt the ritual practices of

the winter markets to fit one’s own immediate needs and abilities.

Records from Mianzhu’s historic door deity trade also document a changing

industry, shaped by performative approaches to ritual print production and marketing. For

instance, one of the most publicized works of Mianzhu nianhua is a pair of simple and

roughly executed door deity prints dated to the late nineteenth century, done in a format

known as tianshuijiao 􀹀􀶣􀢖, a dialect term that may be loosely translated as

“superfluous painting” or literally, “adding watery feet” (fig. 23). 132 As a way to make

some extra income from the winter print markets, the workers in Mianzhu’s print

factories would stay after hours to make these door deities out of leftover papers and

paints. These works would then be cheaply sold to customers during the late-night

markets, when many vendors had already packed up and gone home. Over time, this

became a ritualized activity and the works were known as tianshuijiao. A similar term,

ganshuihuo 􀛊􀶣􀠊, was used to refer to the batch of hastily made works of the winter

rush as opposed to the works produced in the slower summer months.133 With a few

quick brushstrokes, the tianshuijiao producers would create the most inexpensive door

deities in the marketplace. Printed and painted on small size papers, the works were

designed for temporary display on modest sized doorways. These works are thus the

innovative results of niche marketing to the poorest segment of the population, who could

only afford the most basic door deity prints made with leftover materials. In the extant

132 The term itself may carry negative connotations, as in the saying “􀟂􀴘􀹀􁉀,” which literally means

“drawing legs on a snake.” Figuratively, the saying means to ruin the effect of something by adding

something superfluous, or to overdo something.

133 Wei Chuanyi 􀻉􀔮􁁬, “Mianzhu nianhua diaocha cailiao" 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀗘􀒰􀒋􀨘􀀁[Mianzhu nianhua

interview records] in Zhongguo Mianzhu nianhua 􁇏􀝓􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀀁􀀼China’s Mianzhu nianhua], ed. Yu Jundao

􁂿􀤮􀖡􀀁(Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2007), 136-140.

example seen here, only minimal efforts were made to fill in the outline of the print and

essential features are left unpainted, such as the sword and eyes of the warrior on the left.

The tianshuijiao door deities thus reflect how innovative works and marketing strategies

were ritualized as responses to challenges of the workplace and marketplace.

Accounts of the early twentieth-century print trade also show how Mianzhu’s

printshops and print guilds competed vigorously for access to auspicious locations and

the most auspicious dates for setting up temporary markets. Interview records with 80-

year-old printmaker He Qufa 􀞅􀲀􀘿 document a hierarchical arrangement of “large” and

“small” print markets in Mianzhu:

The rhyme goes, “On the first day of the eleventh lunar month, the shop sign goes

up. On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the market stand goes up [􀗫􁄅􀔚

􁁂􀔛􀺬􁈰􀄑􀦛􁄅􀔚􁁂􀔛􀸂􁈰].” The winter print market was made up of a big

market and a small market. The small market was at the Eastern Gate Dam [􀗪􀫊

􀞊􀏞], in Qingtong village [􀱢􀹙􀽔]. Starting from Qingtong village, the print

stands would extend fifteen li along the main road, all the way to Nanxuan Shrine

[􀬲􀿄􁨂] just outside of town. The big market was inside the urban area at Nanhua

Palace, open every day until two in the morning. This market would continue to

the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month. Another rhyme goes, “Go see flowers

at the East Gate Dam, go see pictures at Nanhua Palace [􀗪􀫊􀞊􀏞􀲀􀜴􀞽􀄑􀬲􀞿􀜅

􀧚􀲀􀥁􀟂].”134

These rhymes, which are excerpts of orally transmitted knowledge in the trade,

underscore the role of auspicious shrines and temples as sought after trading sites. Up

until the end of the Qing period, the timing and siting of these print markets was

regulated by a powerful door deity guild known as the Fuxi Association, named after the

134 Ibid., 136-137.

guild’s patron deity Fuxi, a legendary emperor credited for creating fishing, trapping, and

writing. The guild set up a meeting hall with a shrine to Fuxi at the Nanhua Palace in

Mianzhu’s urban center, consolidating their presence and power in a central location. On

selected auspicious dates, the guild would reserve the Nanhua Palace for large banquets,

where several hundred people would gather to conduct business negotiations in the print

trade while feasting, watching theater performances, and making offerings to the guild’s

patron deity. To protect the industry from regional competitors, the guild also regulated

issues around pricing, workers’ pay, trading rules, and production secrets. 135 These

records show that a deft understanding of how to harmonize one’s business with the use

of auspicious times and sites was a matter of survival in the trade.

Indeed, the marketplace itself was seen as an auspicious and ritually efficacious

event that boosted the prosperity and status of the community. This is captured in a short

“bamboo stick verse,” or popular chant by the late Qing dynasty author Li Ximing 􀧙􀼌􀬁

, who captures the bustling marketplaces of Mianzhu, affectionately known at the time as

“Little Chengdu:”

A Chant for Mianzhu

Waterways and mountain roads rumble with the ruckus of shipping.

Year-round shops and traveling merchants wheel and deal all night and day.

Throngs of people flow together, as bountiful as the silky bamboo groves.

The good name of “Little Chengdu” is a worthy one.136

135 Feng, “Historical accounts of Mianzhu's trade associations,” 14.

136 Zhang Zhaoyuan 􁅣􁅹􁃷. Mianzhu shi song 􀫥􁇰􀵂􀷁 [A selection of Mianzhu poetry] (Chengdu:

Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1998), 197.

􁂢􀫥􁇰

􀶣􀓱􀳶􀩤􀠊􁆚􀞫

􁉕􀡉􀾛􀴅􀲰􁁀􀹭

􀠶􀠶􁆇􀳂􀫥􁇰􀪴

􀙙􀬀􀒂􀦍􀽬􀓮􀗻

The sounds, textures, and agitated energy of the crowded streets are brought to life and

celebrated as an auspicious image of prosperity and abundance. The festive scene is full

of movement and exchange, where the sense of prosperity is captured by the flows of

people and goods over mountains and rivers. In the last two lines, the poem plays on

Mianzhu’s name, with its literal meaning of “silky bamboo” and its nickname of “Little

Chengdu.” In comparing the throngs of people to silky bamboo groves, the verse

references Mianzhu’s name but also an important local resource that is used to

manufacture large quantities of fine papers. The last line concludes that Mianzhu does

indeed live up to its reputation as a “Little Chengdu,” a name that suggests that

Mianzhu’s markets are only second to the provincial capital itself.

In thinking through the power of these markets to transform a range of goods into

ritual commodities, I would add here that it is the timed interaction between marketplace

practices and ephemeral goods that produces the efficacious results of the marketplace to

support prosperity and livelihood. In thinking through this dialectical relationship as the

site of agency, I am persuaded by the notion of an “agentic assemblage,” as proposed by

political theorist Jane Bennett. Referencing the theoretical work of Bruno Latour and

Deleuze and Guattari, Bennett describes an agentic assemblage as a spatial-temporal

configuration comprised of diverse human and non-human agents that each carry a

“certain vital force” yet as whole give rise to effects that are greater than the sum of the

parts:

Assemblages are adhoc groupings of diverse elements, of vibrant materials of all

sorts. Assemblages are living, throbbing confederations that are able to function

despite the presence of energies that confound them from within. They have

uneven topographies, because some of the points at which the various affects and

bodies cross paths are more heavily trafficked than others, and so power is not

distributed equally across the surface. Assemblages are not governed by any

central head: no one materiality or type of material has sufficient competence to

determine consistently the trajectory or impact of the group.137

Instead of focusing on objects or practices in isolation, the notion of an agentic

assemblage shifts the focus onto a certain spatial-temporal configuration of both objects

and practices. Using an electrical grid as an example, Bennett argues that the competing

efforts of various human players (legislators, technicians, company heads) within a

complex cluster of charged electrical entities (electrons, power lines, or electromagnetic

fields) produces distinctive effects despite “alongside energies and factions that fly out

from it and disturb it from within.”138 The notion of an agentic assemblage thus

acknowledges the co-existence of disparate entities that may “confound from within”

while maintaining a certain common trajectory.139 This view of “distributed agency”

acknowledges how competing entities and discourses may simultaneously shape the

nianhua marketplace, which as a whole produces real effects in supporting livelihood in

the community. In considering the nianhua street market as an agentic assemblage, it is

137 Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009),

23.

138 Ibid., 23.

139 Ibid.

possible to acknowledge a more nuanced view of how agency is continually negotiated

between human and non-human entities, without taking for granted a hierarchical

relationship between the two.

In contrast to anthropologist Alfred Gell’s theory of “object agency,”140 which

privileges human agency over object agency by situating objects as “mediators” or

“indexes” of human agents, the notion of an agentic assemblage does not privilege human

agents over non-human ones. In setting forth the notion of an agentic assemblage,

Bennett challenges the life/matter binary in modern scholarship in order “to theorize a

vitality intrinsic to materiality” and “to detach materiality from the figures of passive,

mechanistic, or divinely infused substance.”141 Instead of reducing materiality to raw or

crude matter to be creatively manipulated or infused with meaning by humans or divine

entities, Bennett argues for a view of materiality that is “as much force as entity, as much

energy as matter, as much intensity as extension.”142 Bennett further argues that agency

should not be exclusively limited to human will or intentionality, as the “locus of agency

is always a human-nonhuman working group.”143

Bennett’s works represents a growing body of work that challenges the positivist

rhetoric of materiality that has pervaded Western scholarship since the Enlightenment

era.144 For a study of nianhua, the notion of an agentic assemblage is useful for several

reasons. Firstly, it acknowledges the presence of an ontologically heterogeneous field,

where competing bodies, discourses, and practices may be grouped together for analysis.

140 Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 6-8.

141 Bennett, Vibrant Matter, xiii.

142 Ibid., 20.

143 Ibid., xvii.

144 Among the most influential works to critique the life/matter binary in Western discourses are Bruno

Latour, We Have Never Been Modern, trans. Catherine Porter (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1993),

and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, trans. Brian Massumi (London and New

York: Continuum, 2004).

It is thus a concept that does not necessitate an objective or fixed interpretation of agency,

but rather stresses how diverse conceptions of agency may come into play. Secondly, in

challenging the life/matter binary, the notion of an assemblage moves past the reductive

labels of “image-worship” or “superstition” that have plagued the study of popular

Chinese images since the late nineteenth century.145

Interestingly, Bennett also draws extensively on the work of Francois Julien, who

theorized the notion of shi 􀵝 within Chinese cultural discourses. As a word derived from

military strategy, the notion of shi refers to the disposition, propensity, power, or

trajectory inherent to a specific arrangement of things, the “dynamic force emanating

from a spatio-temporal configuration rather than from any particular element within

it.”146 The notion of shi thus pushes for a view of agency that is not fixed in any one

“thing” such as an object or human, but rather tied to the spatio-temporal configurations

in which such vital entities play a part. It also suggests that the agency of a particular

event or arrangement may be unpredictable and emergent rather than guided by a central

authority. Like the concept of the assemblage, the notion of shi resonates with how

nianhua vendors’ actively harness auspicious times and spaces to boost the propensity of

the market to draw customers, although it should be kept in mind that the specific

practices they use to do this may vary widely and represent competing strategies. As I

move towards a discussion of ritual practices in nianhua consumption and production, I

will further stress how the notion of ritual agency is negotiated and performed in ways

that mark out auspicious time and space.

145 I am referring here to the studies of Chinese popular images in the late ninetheeth and early twentieth

centuries by Sinologists such as Henri Dore, Edouard Chavannes, and Justus Doolittle.

146 Francois Jullien, The Propensity of Things: Toward a History of Efficacy in China, trans. Janet Lloyd

(Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books, 1999), 35.

“Out With the Old, In With the New”: the Transformative Spaces of Nianhua Use

Although I found little evidence of nianhua used for ritual purposes inside the

home, ephemeral prints and paintings appear on the exteriors of a countless number of

household doorways in Mianzhu. In conversations with local residents, I asked people

from different backgrounds why they continued the annual practice of renewing the

various displays on their doors. For some, especially those of an elder generation, the

renewal of door deities and spring couplets is a solemn ritual to ensure the divine

protection and blessing of the home for the year to come. In these cases, this act is

usually associated with a proper sending off and welcoming back of the deities so they

can perform their protective duties for the coming year. Yet for most people I

encountered, they explained it as simply a customary practice to ensure a festive

atmosphere for their Lunar New Year reunions. Interestingly, “pursuing the auspicious,

repelling the portentous” is often used as a catchall term for these different attitudes and

practices. Instead of projecting a set of shared beliefs or ideas onto the actual print

practices, I will stress the diverse range of approaches tied to ritual nianhua display. 147

I will begin with an example that shows how household displays directly reflect

the diversity of works circulating in the markets. In a humble urban home located in an

older residential area of Mianzhu, it is possible to see how old and new print practices

147 Anthropologists working in the area of Chinese popular religion have cautioned against using the term

xin 􀾐 or “beliefs” in interviewing people and in referring to popular practices. This is because the term is

often associated with the negative connotations of mixin 􀫙􀾐 “superstition” or may carry too strong of a

meaning in terms of conviction or worldview. For a discussion of this issue, see Ole Bruun, Fengshui in

China: Geomantic Divination between State Orthodoxy and Popular Religion (Honolulu: University of

Hawai'i Press, 2003). Stephan Feuchtwang has also pointed to the problem of using a European language of

religion to describe Chinese religious practices, where a sharp distinction between belief and performance

should not be taken for granted. See Stephen Feuchtwang, Popular Religion in China: The Imperial

Metaphor (London and New York, Routledge, 1993), 8-13.

merge together in one display. This particular residence is tucked away in a tightly

packed row of single story households with doors that open to a narrow cobble-stoned

lane. A pair of digitally printed door deities face inward on either side of the double leaf

doors, a typical feature of older sanheyuan 􀳘􀞆􁃽 homes that have a small center

courtyard, surrounded on three sides by living spaces (fig. 24). 148 These door deities bear

little resemblance to Mianzhu’s historical woodblock printed door deities; they are

generic representations of warriors who are only identifiable by the names printed in the

upper corners, which mark this set as the historical Tang warriors Yu Chigong 􀻍􀓾􀜀

and Qin Shubao 􀱕􀵼􀐏. A pair of digitally printed spring couplets are symmetrically

displayed on either side of the door, two strips of red paper with calligraphic verses that

call for wealth, prosperity, and peace to enter the home: “May the wellsprings of wealth

pour into an abundant home, may peace and fortune enter a prosperous abode!” 􀒍􁃷􀜼􀣉

􀓄􀴹􀡅􀀍􀷼􁄎􀞟􀤷􀾖􀩈􁅍. These spring couplets are accompanied by a third strip of paper

centered over the lintel that has fallen apart due to exposure to the elements.

While the protective door deities guard the center of the door to repel the

portentous, the calligraphic strips frame the outer perimeter to welcome in the auspicious.

The notion of balance is an underlying principle here as seen in the symmetrical

alignment of the works, the equal length verses of the couplets, and the tension between

attracting prosperity and repelling danger. At the center of the door is yet another

calligraphic strip of paper, with handwritten characters that read, “Auspiciousness when

the doors open!” 􀤷􂁽􀠝􀱩. The work is placed right over the opening of the door and cut

148 There are also four-sided “quadrangle” 􀶹􀞆􁃽 homes in the area, where an inner courtyard is

surrounded on all four sides by living quarters. For a discussion of domestic architecture in Sichuan and

other areas of Southern China see Ronald Knapp, China's Old Dwellings (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i

Press, 2000).

down the middle so each time the door opens the characters come apart and back together

again. The strategic placement of this calligraphic strip brings an element of interactivity,

as the work is physically activated each time the door is used. It was likely made by a

friend or family member to supplement the commercially printed works. Such resourceful

approaches to ritual print display are commonly seen in Mianzhu, where commercially

printed and handmade works are regularly seen side by side on household doors. The

timed renewal of these works and their seemingly adhoc combination of different kinds

of images reveals a creative approach to transforming the household doorway into an

auspicious space for ritual interaction.

As people pass through these doors on a daily basis, they literally walk through

the threshold of the words and their physical, visual, and conceptual influences.

Auspicious characters play a potent role in the construction of lived spaces, as Ronald

Knapp has pointed out through extensive examples from Sichuan and other provinces. 149

Strips of calligraphy bearing auspicious characters are also posted on ridge beams or

doorframes during the construction of a home. The characters for prosperity/good fortune

􀚞, emolument 􀩢, and longevity 􀵰 are particularly prominent and auspicious; they often

appear on ritual print ephemera, greeting cards, clothing, household objects, and

architectural details. The vocalization of such auspicious characters and rebus imagery

speaks to the powerful role of the written word to bring about real consequences and

serves as an integral aspect of engaging with ritual print ephemera.150

149 Ronald G. Knapp, China's Living Houses: Folk Beliefs, Symbols, and Household Ornamentation,

(Honolulu: Hawai'i University Press, 1999), 81-132.

150 According to Di Wang, there were temples around Chengdu during the late 19th and early 20th century

that offered the proper disposal of all written and printed words in a ritual manner that is reminiscent of

funerary practices, where written words are treated as living entities. As a meritorious act, some people

dedicated themselves to collecting written or printed pieces of paper that had been discarded in the streets

in order to bring them to the temples for disposal. See Di Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space,

When I queried local residents as to how they selected door deity images, many

commented on their preference for visually pleasing works with auspicious features,

especially bright red paper, gold calligraphy, shiny details, and bold colors. It is possible

to consider these preferred formal characteristics as reflecting aesthetic concerns,

although they do not conform to the preferred tastes of urban elites and folk art scholars

such as Lu Shengzong. Many people specifically commented on the need to display the

newest door deity imagery in order to fulfill the New Year aspiration of “disposing the

old, welcoming the new” 􀕊􀣸􁂒􀾍. By far, the majority of the people I spoke with

preferred digital prints, which were seen as both “new” and “fashionable.” One middle

aged woman told me that her uncle used to write the spring couplets for their family and

neighbors until digital prints became readily available in the marketplace: “He used to

use simple black ink on very thin red paper, but now the markets sell inexpensive

couplets that are printed with shiny gold characters that are far more sturdy and

auspicious.”151 Such remarks speak to a conscious preference for digitally printed

nianhua, not only due to price and availability, but also due to their auspicious and

ritually efficacious characteristics.

However, in looking at the broader range of door deities across China, it is

evident these formal preferences are often a reflection of privilege rather than of ritual

necessity. In the rural regions of Shaanxi, even the most ephemeral and mundane

materials can serve as door deities, such as lumps of ice ( bing 􀑢), a homonym for

Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870-1930 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003). This

practice was not limited to Sichuan however, but prevalent in many regions of China. For a broader

discussion, see Justus Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese: With Some Account of Their Religious,

Governmental, Educational, and Business Customs and Opinions, vol. 2 (New York: Harper and Brothers,

1865; Taipei: Ch’eng-wen Publishing, 1966), 167-169; and Ye Xiaoqing, The Dianshizhai Pictorial:

Shanghai Urban Life, 1884-1898, Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies 98 (Ann Arbor: Center for

Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2003), 213-217.

151 Local resident in conversation with the author, Mianzhu, December 2006.

“soldier,” that are to be placed around doors, animal pens, and gates. Chunks of coal or

charcoal may also be tied up with a rope from the door lintel, as protective “black tigers”

(heihu 􀞑􀞷).152 In these instances, the concept of “door deity” is signaled through ritual

gestures that strategically establish auspicious associations with everyday objects never

intended for ritual use. These examples challenge the notion that auspiciousness must be

visually represented to be ritually effective, yet they are excluded from the existing

nianhua research because they do not involve printed or painted images. This shows the

limitation of folk art studies that focus narrowly on art media rather than interconnected

forms of cultural practice.

The open-ended nature of what constitutes a door deity is evident in Mianzhu,

where ephemeral print ads, company calendars, and even movie posters have ended up as

door deities on local households in poorer neighborhoods.153 In this lower-income urban

neighborhood, a single-leaf door shows the use of a calendar advertisement as a single

door deity (fig. 25). Single-leaf doors have become the architectural norm in more

humble living spaces and apartment suites, thus singular door deity prints are commonly

seen in Mianzhu. With the advent of consumer mass culture in the 1980s and 1990s,

commercial ads are often passed out for free to promote businesses and/or statesponsored

propaganda campaigns. In this case, the calendar print is produced by the City

of Mianzhu Television Broadcasting Office and bears a New Year’s greeting to all its

viewers: “May you have a joyous spring and an auspicious new year!” It includes a

computer-generated image of young girl playing with a puppy in a garden of flowers and

152 David Holm, Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 147.

153 The appropriation of a printed ad for display within the home as an auspicious image is not a new

development. The practice has been documented by Ellen J. Laing in her study of Shanghai’s printing

industry in the early twentieth century: Ellen J. Laing, Selling Happiness: Calendar Posters and Visual

Culture in Early Twentieth Century China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004).

butterflies, a scene that is set above a calendar. This printed ad was not designed for ritual

use, yet its inclusion of auspicious imagery made it a viable candidate for ritual

transformation into a door deity. The inclusion of other works around the print ad also

helps to reframe it as a protective door deity. Handwritten on thin red paper, a simple set

of spring couplets with missing characters hangs precariously to the walls. The couplet

references a popular verse: “With the arrival of spring, a propitious air fills the hall; with

the approaching sunlight, an auspicious brilliance glows in the courtyard” 􀔽􀖞􀸖􀰭􁄹􀳋

􀰗􀄑􀲰􀨢􀹖􀴈􀰏􀽖􀜻. A third strip hung across the lintel reads, “Attaining good fortune,

welcoming auspiciousness” 􀬬􀚞􁂒􀽖. In the past, calendar prints were usually displayed

inside the home as auspicious images, not on the front door. In this case, it is possible to

observe how a particular mode of ritual display transforms a print ad to suit the interests

of the user.

If humble urban homes use whatever means available to put together a set of door

deities and spring couplets, then wealthy rural families will often take extra steps to

enhance their doors with auspicious and extravagant markers of status. In a newly built

home in the rural outskirts of town, the double leaf doorway has been painted with a

bright auspicious red color, protected with metal bars, and adorned with gold plated

designs and an eight-spoked Buddhist wheel of life (fig. 26). The doors bear high-end

commercially produced door deities, spring couplets, and hanging lanterns. Reflecting the

rise of a mass commercial culture, the lanterns are prominently marked with gold

corporate logos from a local liquor company. Again, it is possible to see an ongoing

dialectic between advertising campaigns that appropriate auspicious design elements for

marketing products and domestic ritual practices that reappropriate such goods to

enhance the auspicious space of the home.

The creative approaches used here illustrate ritual practice as an active, flexible,

and adaptive activity that makes use of available resources to engage a lived

environment. Far from prescriptive, ritual print use is linked to the flow of goods in the

marketplace and the changing architecture and social configurations of the city.

Depending on the time of year, or even the time of day, the outdoor display of such

works continually changes as if caught in an ever-turning kaleidoscope of shifting shapes,

textures, and colors. Merging seamlessly with the environment and the passage of time,

the annual lifecycles of nianhua can only be understood as processes of convergence and

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