Mianzhu Nianhua Museum: Putting the Past in its Place

In 1978, just as state policies relaxed around traditional forms of cultural

production, the notion of heritage protection was redeployed to legitimize the state’s

control over cultural resources at the local level. The vigorous energy dedicated towards

heritage preservation and management reflects a certain anxiety over the state’s changing

stance towards traditional arts and culture. In Mianzhu, officials dealt with this

uncertainty by reinstating the more familiar and tested methods of the 1950s and 1960s,

including the collection of nianhua from local households, conducting interviews, and

setting up production teams to produce state sanctioned nianhua. 287 As in the reform era,

the bureau once again exerted state jurisdiction over all historic nianhua as state artifacts

􀻓􀻾 and renewed the 1960 provincial mandate to “rescue of folk art heritage” 􀰽􀣷􀫶􀡗

􁁜􀶌􁁌􀓁. While the earlier print reforms sought to rescue heritage in order to weed out

“feudal superstition” 􀙿􀡹􀫙􀾐 and to produce politically sanctioned nianhua, the 1980s

revival movement sought to recuperate previously banned works in order to launch a folk

art export industry. In this section, I will examine how this process of recuperation

culminates in the extensive displays of historic nianhua at the Mianzhu Nianhua

Museum, a state-run institution that opened in 1996 to “preserve, protect, and promote”

287 Shi Weian 􀵎􀺻􀎽, "Sichuan sheng wenhua guanzhang peixunban jianggao" 􀶹􀔫􀴸􀻓􀟄􀜶􀓉􀮡􀿞􀏫􀢃􀛠

[Lecture for the Sichuan Cultural Affairs Bureau directors' training]," in Mianzhu nianhua zhiyin - Shi

Weian yu minjian yishu 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􁆩􁁻􀄒􀵎􀺻􀎽􁃐􀫶􀡗􁁜􀶌 􀊦Mianzhu Nianhua: Shi Wei An's Collected

Writings on Folk Art 􀊧, ed. Hou Rong 􀞥􀲴 (Chengdu: Sichuan meishu chubanshe, 1984).

Mianzhu’s nianhua heritage. I will draw attention to the problematic provenance of the

museum collection as well as the tensions and incongruities that emerge between the

actual works and the museum’s strategies of heritage display.

The provenance of the museum’s prized collection historic nianhua is shrouded in

mystery. Works were first collected in 1960 when state nianhua researchers Shi Weian

and Fu Wenshu were charged with the duty of rescuing Mianzhu’s nianhua heritage.

With the assistance of elder printmakers and local informants, they collected some 200

historic nianhua roughly dated to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These

were taken from local households, abandoned storage rooms of former printshops, and

even a salvage yard that was preparing to burn a large pile of prints as garbage. The

specific details of these collection activities are lacking, as the mission was only recorded

in summary form by the leading researcher Shi Weian. According to Shi, the team

collected “about 100 door deity works that included over twenty pairs of hand painted

door deity designs dating to the Ming and Qing period, 118 carved wooden blocks and

rubbing blocks, and other miscellaneous painted works.”288

According to firsthand accounts, the bulk of the works were transferred from

Mianzhu’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, where they had only survived the Cultural

Revolution due to the clandestine efforts of the bureau chiefs. In April of 1966, two of the

bureau directors, Huang Zonghou 􀟛􁈷􀞨 and Hou Shiwu 􀞥􀵗􀻳 made a secret pact to

build a fake wall in the main office to hide the most treasured works. Two years later, the

works were discovered by a group of maintenance workers, who began burning the old

288 According to Shi, they found the works just in time as they were being carted to a salvage yard to be

sold as paper waste for recycling. The works were stored as overstocked items from an old paper shop that

was being cleaned out by the descendants of the owner. Shi Weian 􀵎􀺻􀎽, “Mianzhu menshen yishi” 􀫥􁇰

􀫊􀴪􁣧􀵙 [Mianzhu door deity anecdotes], Deyang Daily 􀖣􁀝􀲰􀐑, March 2, 1996.

printing blocks as firewood to keep warm. By the time Hou arrived to stop the workers,

thirty blocks had been destroyed. The remaining eighty-eight carved blocks, prints, and

paintings survived to form the most complete and high quality set of historic nianhua

from Mianzhu. 289

Despite the rather haphazard survival of these works, they were immediately

displayed in nianhua exhibitions that framed them as a representative collection of

traditional Mianzhu nianhua. During the 1980s, a series of touring exhibitions were

organized, showcasing these works as “traditional nianhua” 􀔮􀹤􀭍􀟂. They were

displayed alongside “modern nianhua” 􀽃􀕽􀭍􀟂, new works by trained art academy

artists commissioned by the state that depicted themes related to the “Four

Modernizations” campaign, such as images of scientific progress, education, and

consumer goods.290 In line with the new national agenda to open up Chinese markets to

global trade, the touring exhibitions served multiple purposes tied to cultural exchange,

diplomacy, and trade, where the works themselves narrated China’s smooth transition to

modernity on the global stage. By 1985, Mianzhu nianhua had traveled to Hong Kong,

France, United States, Japan, Mali, and Burkina Faso in West Africa. A slew of national

exhibitions soon followed, attracting media attention and Mianzhu’s inclusion in a Hong

Kong documentary on Sichuan’s cultural attractions.291 Fueled by a larger “folk art fever”

289 Hou and Huang’s clandestine activities are recorded in a published interview with Hou in Shen Hong 􀴫

􁚼, Mianzhu nianhua zhi lu 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􁆭􀩪􀊦Touring Mianzhu Nianhua􀀾􀀁(Beijing: Zhongguo huabao

chubanshe, 2006), 63-70.

290 John Gittings has commented on how posters reflected the “rapid shift in political culture” at the end of

the Cultural Revolution (1976-1979) when images of science, education, and consumerism “could now be

presented as primary targets of achievement.” See John Gittings, "Excess and Enthusiasm," in Picturing

Power in the People's Republic of China: Posters of the Cultural Revolution, ed. Harriet Evans and

Stephanie Donald (Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.), 42.

291 For a discussion of the 1980s touring exhibitions of Mianzhu nianhua and the filming of the feature

documentary, Curiosities of Sichuan 􀶹􀔫􀰅􀱿􀩣 see Pan Peide 􀮌􀮡􀖣, "Sichuan Mianzhu nianhua huigu yu

that was sweeping through China, these early revival activities were primarily geared

towards a global audience and did little to support the local nianhua industry.

By 1993, these exhibitions had garnered enough success to earn Mianzhu official

recognition as a Folk Art Hometown and state funds were allocated to build the Mianzhu

Nianhua Museum 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀑰􀻾􀜶, a powerful institution that would secure the mandate

to preserve and to protect Mianzhu’s nianhua heritage for all future generations. Opened

to the public in 1996, the modern three-story building houses Mianzhu’s official nianhua

collection, which has now expanded to include about 800 works (fig. 63).292 In sharp

contrast to the cyclic economy of ephemeral door deities seen throughout Mianzhu’s

residential neighborhoods, the museum establishes alternate modes of viewing where

nianhua are presented as rare and permanent artifacts of historical and visual interest.

In framing the historical context of nianhua, the museum displays directly reflect

the legacy of the 1950s print reforms as well as the 1980s traveling nianhua exhibitions,

which separated traditional and modern nianhua as distinct categories. In the museum, a

section of the upper floor is reserved for pre-1949 nianhua works, which are labeled as

“traditional nianhua. ” A separate section, marked off with partitions, is reserved for the

“modern nianhua ” created in the 1950s or later. Separated both temporally and

physically, these categories are also arranged to effectively narrate nianhua’s historical

transition from traditional forms to modern ones, with the modern works placed near the

entrance of the room while the traditional works are hung on wall partitions in the back of

zhanwang" 􀶹􀔫􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀖥􀟭􀜤􁃐􁅚􀺬 [Reflections on Mianzhu nianhua's past and future prospects],

Meishu Tongxun 􀫅􀶌􀹙􀿟 2(1990).

292 In 1993, the county of Mianzhu was designated a “Chinese folk art hometown” 􁇏􀝓􀫶􀡗􁁜􀶌􁆭􀽔 and

received at least five million yuan in government funding to build the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum. In 1996,

the county (􀽅) was upgraded to city (􀵧) status.

the room, forming a linear order that guides the viewer’s back in time as they move

through the space (fig. 64).

In the 1980s and 1990s, the folk art revival was referred to as a push to “renew

nianhua ” 􀭍􀟂􀔷􀾍 and to “put the past in service of the present, out with the old and in

with the new” 􀜞􀺹􀣂􁂨􀀍􀀁􀹷􀓧􀔛􀾍.293 These slogans play on the auspicious meaning of

newness yet in practice, the revival policies served to relegate tradition to the past. This is

confirmed by the use of the term “folk culture” 􀫶􀡗􀻓􀟄 in contrast to “mass culture” 􀲕

􁇙􀻓􀟄. According to Shi Weian, the notion of folk culture should be understood as the

non-official realms of culture and belonging primarily to the feudal and pre-revolutionary

past.294 Conversely, the notion of mass culture, which was popularized by Mao Zedong’s

Yanan talk in 1943, is closely tied to revolutionary culture and thus firmly planted in the

modern age. This shift in terms marks a temporal divide where nianhua is reconceived as

a folk art of the remote past rather than a cultural activity of the present.

Likewise, the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum’s preservation of heritage is equated

with the preservation of works made prior to 1950s. In the museum, this temporal divide

is replicated in the arrangement of the works, where the upper floor is reserved for pre-

1949 nianhua works (often referred to as “old nianhua ” or “traditional nianhua ”) and the

lower floor is for “new nianhua,” works created in the 1950s or later. These approaches

are borrowed directly from 1950’s print reform discourses, which popularized the term

“new nianhua ” to refer to the ideologically reformed prints of “mass culture.” The

293 Pan Peide􀀁􀮌􀮡􀖣􀀍 “Gu wei jin yong, tuichen chuxin: chengtan Mianzhu nianhua chuangxin zhong de

jige wenti "􀜞􀺹􀣂􁂨􀄑􀹷􀓧􀔛􀾍􀄟􀓴􀸋􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀔷􀾍􁇏􀖥􀠫􀛱􀻙􀸵 [For the ancient to serve the present, out

with the old, in with the new: an candid discussion of the challenges facing the revival of Mianzhu

nianhua􀀾􀀍 in Mianzhu nianhua ziliao xuanbian 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􁈧􀨘􀿊􀑉􀀁􀀕 􀀼Anthology of Mianzhu Nianhua

Research Materials, vol. 4􀀾􀀁(Mianzhu: Mianzhu Nianhua Research Society 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀴠, 1982): 5-9.􀀁

294 Shi Weian, “Lecture for the Sichuan Cultural Affairs Bureau,” 146.

reformed prints were considered new and hence, auspicious, while all other prints were

labeled “traditional” 􀔮􀹤, “superstitious” 􀫙􀾐 and “old nianhua ” 􀣸􀭍􀟂􀀏295 This

manipulation of what constitutes the “new” was an effective strategy to cast traditional

prints as inauspicious and outdated obstacles to progress.

This spatial separation of old versus new or traditional versus modern nianhua is

challenged by the works themselves, especially the prints of the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries that depict modern imagery. For instance, the “beautiful maiden

pictures” 􀵢􀭯􀹭 vividly illustrate how Mianzhu’s workshops absorbed the modernizing

tendencies that circulated in the cultural flows of the late nineteenth century. These works

have been taken up in existing studies as a sign of China’s “encounter with modernity” at

the turn of the century, as a sign of change and rupture due to the influx of new identities,

ideas, and modernization movements.296 However, it is also possible to read these images

in the context of nianhua’s continuous depictions of the new and auspicious, as part of

the Lunar New Year rites of renewal and regeneration. These annually-renewed prints

typically depict elegant young women on smaller size papers to be circulated as gifts for

women; the size is designed for its intimate display inside bedrooms and forms part of the

larger repertoire of auspicious images to fulfill women’s pursuit of health, fertility,

beauty, birth of sons, happy marriages, and so on. Starting in the late nineteenth century,

295 For a discussion of the 1950s national print reform movement, see Chang-tai Hung, "Repainting China:

New Year Prints (Nianhua) and Peasant Resistance in the Early Years of the People's Republic,"

Comparative Studies in Society and History 42, no. 4 (2000): 779-810.

296 There has been an explosion of literature on this issue in recent years, with many texts that deal directly

with images of “beautiful maidens” in posters and ads as a sign of Chinese modernity in Shanghai: Ellen J.

Laing, "Reform, Revolutionary, Political, and Resistance Themes in Chinese Popular Prints, 1900-1940,"

Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 12, no. 123-175 (2000); —, Selling Happiness: Calendar Posters

and Visual Culture in Early Twentieth Century China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004); Jason

C. Kuo, ed. Visual Culture in Shanghai, 1850s-1930s (Washington, DC: Lightning Source Inc., 2007); Leo

Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945 (Cambridge

and London: Harvard University Press, 1999); Laikwan Pang, The Distorting Mirror: Visual Modernity in

China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007).

fashionable foreign accessories such as fans, earrings, flowers, and umbrellas were

gradually incorporated into this context (fig. 65).

In an example of a beautiful maiden print, roughly dated to the late Qing period

(fig. 66), one finds an incongruous juxtaposition of a maiden who carries a fan and yet

even with bound feet effortlessly rides a fanciful bicycle bearing a golden dragon-head as

its steering device. Her guapimao cap 􀜨􀯃􀪶, qipao dress 􀰋􀮜, and tiny feet were

commonly seen in the late Qing and signify her status as a well-to-do commoner. The

cap, which was not worn by women, was occasionally worn as a playful novelty among

young girls and adds a whimsical air to the image. The awkwardly structured bicycle also

bears disconnected foot pedals that jut out of two closely positioned wheels. It is unlikely

that the print’s designer had ever seen an actual bicycle, but rather based this depiction on

either a verbal account or a printed image of one. In Sichuan, bicycles did not arrive in

large numbers until at least the 1930s, however, its image as a sign of wealth, status, and

advanced technology was already absorbed into Mianzhu’s local formats of auspicious

imagery.297

During the 1920s and 30s, Shanghai’s urban printing industry appropriated the

“beautiful maiden” format to advertise foreign goods and services such as this cigarette

advertisement depicting a sexy young woman on a bicycle (fig. 67). Such works have

attracted much scholarly attention as part of Shanghai’s visual culture, which has been

privileged as a locus of Chinese modernity in this period. Yet there has been only

marginal discussion of how these works are recirculated and reabsorbed into ritual print

297For a discussion on the history of the bicycle in China, see Amir Moghaddass Esfehani, "The Bicycle's

Long Way to China: The Appropriation of Cycling as a Foreign Cultural Technique (1860-1941)," paper

presented at the Proceedings of the 13th International Cycling History Conference, San Francisco, 2003;

Frank Dikotter, Things Modern: Material Culture and Everyday Life in China (London: Hurst & Company,

2007).

activities geared towards “pursuing the auspicious, repelling the portentous.” In taking

ritual print use into consideration, it is possible to see how newness, change, and

innovation were integral aspects of “tradition” and not exclusive to encounters with the

“modern.” Further, this documents how Mianzhu printmakers have a history of

strategically situating themselves within a competitive marketplace by using new imagery

to expand and empower their repertoires of auspicious imagery.

The Museum’s linear staging of nianhua history as a transition from tradition to

modernity is also highly problematic from a historical point of view, because production

of the so-called “traditional nianhua ” never completely ceased; such works were widely

available in the markets up to the mid-1960s when the Cultural Revolution began. There

is also evidence that these works continued to emerge in small quantities during the

Cultural Revolution, and of course afterwards. Furthermore, the temporal order of the

works on display is not reliable because it is very difficult to date the works themselves.

Only a very general estimation can be made based on the use of locally produced papers

and mineral pigments, which began falling out of use in the 1910s and 1920s due to the

importation of cheaper materials. Aside from this, however, it is impossible to date the

works according to subject matter alone as many traditional subjects and print formats

continued to circulate alongside the reformed prints of the 1950s and 1960s.

By constructing a clear divide between traditional and modern works, the museum

uncritically adopts the stance of the 1950s print reforms, which popularized the terms

“new nianhua ” and “modern nianhua ” to refer to the reformed prints. The rhetoric that

foregrounds the newness of the reformed prints actually appropriates the auspicious

associations with all things new and renewed, and in doing so, also denigrates traditional

print formats as “old,” which should be discarded and avoided at all costs during the

Lunar New Year. 298 Yet despite the criticism of traditional references as feudal and

backward, the reformed prints continued to appropriate their most auspicious features,

including the door deity format that was simply remade with glorified images of

anonymous proletarian workers and peasants. In these works, auspicious motifs are used

in abundance to help communicate and inculcate socialist values. In one example, a farm

girl and a factory worker are riding mythical creatures (a phoenix and a dragon) that are

forms of transport reserved for deities. Instead of carrying the traditional weapons used

by warrior door deities, the farm girl holds a sickle with a red flag and bushel of wheat

while the factory worker grips a steel rod with a red flag and a brick steel furnace (fig. 7).

Although this was part of the larger attempt to secularize images of divine beings and

relegate tradition to the past, it is possible to see how mundane figures are in fact deified

in the use of auspicious imagery normally reserved for door deities.299

What is the larger motivation behind replaying the death of traditional nianhua at

the hands of the state-led print reforms? At first glance, this appears incongruous with the

interest in glorifying and marketing traditional nianhua to a global audience. However,

upon closer inspection, it is possible to see the high stakes involved in keeping tradition

firmly planted in the past rather than a living, thriving presence. The projection of

nianhua as a lost or disappearing tradition is in the interests of the state as it legitimizes

the need for official intervention and management. Etymologically linked to the notion of

298 For a discussion of the 1950s national print reform movement, see Chang-tai Hung, “Repainting China,”

779-810.

299 Furthermore, the print reform efforts had limited control over the consumption and ritual use of such

works, a point clearly documented by Chang Hai-tung in his study of the 1950s nianhua reforms. The

notion that traditional print practices were completely displaced by state circumscription holds little ground

when ritual use is taken into account.

inheritance, the notion of “heritage” points to that which resides in the past or comes

from the past. Similarly, the Chinese concept of heritage, or yichan 􁁌􀓁, carries

connotations of material property passed down from the deceased to the living. In

situating nianhua as cultural heritage, the implication is that traditional nianhua would

disappear without official action. This position provides a rationale for a wide range of

revival activities, where the state is positioned as the authoritative custodian and

spokesperson for traditional nianhua. The idea of salvaging the past to serve the present

is captured in the many revival slogans that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s,

including the auspicious sounding slogan of “put the past in service of the present; out

with the old and in with the new.” 300

In thinking through the notion of heritage as a cultural process, it is evident that

the museum’s strategies of display serve to reshape and recast the significance of the

nianhua in its collection. By directing viewers through the space and drawing attention to

certain selected details in the works, the museum plays a key role in publicizing and

authorizing the historical narratives around nianhua. However, the museum display do

not completely dictate the significance of the works, as different viewers will inevitably

bring their own perspectives, memories, and interpretations to bear on the exhibition. In

many cases, the museum’s careful isolation and objectification of historic nianhua is

undermined by the vital relationships they share with nianhua producing families in

Mianzhu. Since many works were taken from local households, they are still connected to

various families’ histories, as prints, paintings, or woodblocks produced by deceased

family members.

300Pan, “For the Ancient to Serve the Present,” 5.

As demonstrated in Chapter Two, lineage paintings, documents, and old

woodblocks still play a critical role in supporting a nianhua workshop’s livelihood and

survival in today’s competitive marketplace. The various print reform movements of the

1950s and early 1960s marked a period of intense censorship and confiscation of

traditional prints and paintings, many of which were treasured lineage documents for

local workshops. During the 1980s, yet another wave of collection was implemented

under the rubric of protecting the nation’s cultural heritage. These repeated seizures have

further disadvantaged nianhua families who rely on these documents to keep their

lineages and professions alive. The museum’s promotional materials often celebrate the

role of state researchers in courageously rescuing Mianzhu’s nianhua heritage from total

disappearance, while making no mention of the darker histories attached to its collection.

A greater recognition of contemporary lineage-making practices would require a

shift in discourse that situates nianhua heritage in the present rather than the past. A close

examination of how historic nianhua are continually reactivated in ritual practices is also

required, tied to livelihood and the embodied transmission of nianhua knowledge in

various domains, such as production skills, storytelling, marketing strategies, and other

forms of ritual knowledge concerning nianhua use. As discussed in previous chapters,

these activities underscore the dialectical and inseparable nature of nianhua and their

living repertoires of ritual practice.

Although ICH discourses are often aimed at recovering the significance of

embodied forms of knowledge and cultural practice, the notion of ICH inevitably reifies a

conceptual framework that separates the tangible from the intangible. Anthropologist

Philip Scher has drawn attention to the problem of how the anti-essentialist stance in

anthropology continues to bear traces of the essentializing scholarship of the past,

especially in the continued “organization of diversity through mutually recognizable

classification, or hegemony as taxonomy.” Scher argues that hegemony lies not in the

proliferation of homogeneous goods flowing outward from the west, but in “the

organization of difference, in the standardization of criteria by which difference can be

measured.”301 The institutionally authorized categories of tangible and intangible heritage

are thus examples of how cultural difference may be effectively managed and organized

under a universal framework that embraces diversity in content but not in organizational

paradigms. Scher also points to how the categorizing of certain objects and practices as

“heritage” are often closely tied to nationalist ideologies:

The nationalist protection of heritage must posit an interested historical narrative

of both the creation and development of certain expressive cultural forms and

that, by doing so, the narrative necessarily excludes both an understanding of the

historical participation of certain groups within the nation, and their contemporary

participation in the ongoing evolution of such cultural forms.302

In the case of the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum, the presentation of nianhua heritage is

narrated as part of the nation’s transition from the traditional to the modern, a

chronological development marked by the transformation of ephemeral ritual objects into

elevated works of art. This narrative erases many of the existing ties between historic

nianhua and the living communities just beyond the walls of the museum, especially

since many of the works come from families that are still flourishing, living in Mianzhu,

and involved in the resurgent nianhua industry. The silence on this issue reflects a

301 Philip Scher, “Copyright Heritage: Preservation, Carnival, and the State in Trinidad,” Anthropological

Quarterly 75, no. 3, (Summer 2002): 460.

302 Ibid., 455.

general reluctance to challenge the authority of state institutions such as the Cultural

Affairs Bureau and the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum, the powerful agencies that collect and

protect “cultural artifacts.” Nevertheless, there is some evidence that the silence is

gradually being broken, and I will briefly draw attention to two important examples I

came across in researching this topic.

The first is an account from Wang Xingru, who openly lamented the loss of his

family’s woodblocks and paintings during our interview session. According to Wang,

these lineage documents were bought by state researchers from Beijing who visited his

father in the 1960s:

It’s a shame that we lost four old blocks. One of them was carved with the

picture, “bestowing the money pot.” It was this big, this long and this wide, and

there were four of them. It's a shame. After my father gave me his works, they

were collected by Professor Ma at the museum in Beijing. The old paintings

passed down from our elders were all sold to him and taken away. Every time he

came, he wanted to find my father and he’d even wait until late evening to buy

those works.303

It is significant that he shared this information with me during an interview attended by

the state researchers Ning Zhiqi and Liu Zhumei. Although he was speaking of the past, it

may be read as a critique of the current collection efforts still being carried out by

Mianzhu’s official agencies. Both Ning and Liu were sympathetic to this problem but

confessed they could do little to help the situation despite their official positions. They

informed me that a set of Wang family lineage paintings is currently held in the Mianzhu

Nianhua Museum: a large set of paintings attributed to Wang’s father, known as the

Twenty Four Filial Acts 􀘽􀵅􀶹􀽭. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate written records

303 Wang Xingru, in interview with the author, Mianzhu, Sichuan, June 2006.

of how or when this work was collected from the Wang family. This work would play an

important role in supporting the Wang family lineage and livelihood, yet there is no clear

legal recourse for them to reclaim the piece.

Aside from Wang’s account, there are also references to the loss of lineage

documents that can be gleaned from the summarized interviews conducted in the 1950s

and again in the 1980s. According to Liu Zhumei’s summarized interview with Zhang

Xianfu, the Zhang family ran one of the most famous and successful nianhua workshops

in Mianzhu. A multi-generational line of designers, the family produced paintings, prints,

murals, fans, and painted coffins. The Zhang family’s prized collection of lineage

documents was known to include woodblocks and paintings that were hundreds of years

old. These works were confiscated and destroyed during the onset of the Cultural

Revolution, amounting to a tragic loss for the family lineage. According to Zhang, his

father’s pain and anger at the loss of these works led him to “die of anger” shortly

after.304

Many of the Zhang family works have resurfaced in the Mianzhu Nianhua

Museum, although the captions make no mention of their problematic provenance.

Unfortunately, the silence of the museum on such issues demonstrates the continued

repression of such histories and the violent backdrop of Mianzhu’s nianhua revival. Only

by reading against the grain of official reports and archived documents do we get a

glimpse of the devastation imparted by the repeated collection of prints and paintings

from local households. Despite the lack of official recognition, however, these stories are

304 Liu Zhumei 􀨾􁇰􀪼, "Re ai nianhua shiye de Zhang Xianfu" 􀲣􀎹􀭍􀟂􀵙􁀼􀖥􁅦􀼵􀚶􀊦Zhang Xianfu's

passion for the nianhua industry], in Mianzhu nianhua ziliao xuanbian 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􁈧􀨘􀿊􀑉 4 [Mianzhu

nianhua selected research documents, vol. 4] (Mianzhu: Mianzhu Nianhua Society 􀫥􁇰􀭍􀟂􀴠, 1982, 1-6.

still being told in the homes and workshops of those who remember their lineage

histories.

When I arrived to do field research in 2006, the halls of the Mianzhu Nianhua

Museum were almost always empty except for the occasional press conference or official

meeting between researchers, collectors, and state officials (fig. 68). Aside from those

directly involved in the state’s nianhua revival activities, I did not meet a single resident

that had actually visited the museum in person. This includes the many nianhua

producers and vendors I interacted with on the streets. The museum had no schedule of

events or programs that engaged the public, although it did have a small team of folk art

researchers who were responsible for the study and documentation of Mianzhu nianhua.

Museum staff had access to small offices and work studios in the museum, but these were

largely unused spaces. On most days, the museum was only staffed by one front desk

person who also watched over the giftshop and a cleaning person. The eerie silence of the

museum served as a sharp contrast to the bustling activities in the street, where the

diverse array of ephemeral nianhua merged seamlessly with the sounds, rhythms, and

lived spaces of everyday life. The slick glass walls of the modern museum and its fragile

works preserved behind glass appear to sanitize and mute the colorful, noisy, and unruly

life of nianhua in the streets. The blindness and deafness of the museum to the living

presence of nianhua just beyond its walls is reminiscent of Theodor Adorno’s famous

comments on the connections between museums and the entombment of the dead:

The German word museal has unpleasant overtones. It describes objects to which

the observer no longer has a vital relationship and which are in the process of

dying. … Museum and mausoleum are connected by more than phonetic

association. Museums are like the family sepulchres of works of art.305

In the case of the Mianzhu Nianhua Museum, many observers still have a vital

relationship to the objects on display, so that the museum’s premature entombment of

nianhua is all the more problematic and incongruous with lived experience.

Contesting Heritage: Nianhua Makers Stake Their Claims

In recuperating the surviving nianhua and woodblocks in its possession, the

Mianzhu Cultural Affairs Bureau reestablished ties with the elderly printmakers that had

participated in the 1950s print reform. The printmakers were hired to reproduce works in

their collection by carving new woodblocks based on historic designs and by printing the

old blocks. With access to these resources, Mianzhu’s printmakers used the opportunity

to help rebuild their own workshop repertoires. Well-poised to straddle both the folk art

export market and the seasonal print markets, they drew on their ritual knowledge and

innovative skills to reappropriate and redesign the historic nianhua for redistribution as

ritual goods in their workshops. Each workshop sought creative ways to enhance and

renew the historical prints’ ritual efficacy to “attract the auspicious, repel the portentous,”

especially by marketing their own signature skills in printing and painting. To illustrate

my point here, I will examine how the Chen and Li workshops incorporated the historic

nianhua into their existing repertoires. While Chapter Two examined their use of lineage

discourses to boost their position in the marketplace, this section will examine more

305 Theodor W. Adorno, “Valery Proust Museum,” in Prisms, trans. Samuel and Sherry Weber (Cambridge:

MIT Press, 1996), 175.

closely their appropriation of the historic nianhua held in the state collection. I will argue

that in the process, they assert their own claims on heritage, not by presenting the works

as folk art as is the case in the Museum, but by reintroducing these works to the

marketplace as inexpensive ritual commodities.

In 1980, Mianzhu’s senior printmakers were invited to reconvene under the

auspices of the “Mianzhu Woodblock Nianhua Research Committee” 􀫥􁇰􀽅􀫥􁇰􀬡􀏰􀭍

􀟂􀿹􀣮􀟶, a resurrected version of the Nianhua Research Society tied to the 1950s print

reforms.306 The committee included officials, researchers, and a handful of elder

printmakers who were former members of the society.. These printmakers have become

known as “master artisans” 􀦺􁁜􀲦, a loaded term that constructs them as individual folk

artists. Yet, the works they make are often collaboratively produced and not the products

of single authors. They also come from varied backgrounds in the print industry, which

was highly stratified across class status and education. They were trained in different

aspects of the print production process, including the four major stages of designing,

carving, printing, and painting.

Here, I will again draw on the interviews I conducted with Chen Xingcai and Li

Fangfu in their print studios in 2006 and 2007. As discussed in Chapter Two, Chen

Xingcai is the leading elder of the Chen family workshop, also known as the “Southern

School” of Mianzhu nianhua. As a youth, Chen was trained as a painter and stamp carver

for the final stage of production. During his extended involvement in the Nianhua

Research Society of the 1950s-1960s and again in its new incarnation of the 1980s, Chen

copied many images from the historic woodblocks and later adapted these works to his

306 During the print reform era, the same committee was named the “Mianzhu Woodblock Print Nianhua

Society” 􀫥􁇰􀬡􀏰􀭍􀟂􀴠. The shift towards “research” in the name of the association signals a new policy

of revival and research rather than reform.

own methods of carving, hand painted color application, and gold stamping. After the

interruption of the Cultural Revolution, Chen built up his own family workshop and

began teaching his skills to his whole family. After years of ideological campaigns

against traditional culture, Chen’s continued use of older images invokes a connection to

history, a certain nostalgia, and local pride.

For instance, in redesigning the Bicycle-riding Maiden print from the state

collection, Chen highlights his unique skills in painting and stamping (fig. 69). For Chen,

it is his signature use of these skills that makes the piece a part of his repertoire. While

the older work from the late 19th century uses pale shades of pink and yellow in the

costume (fig. 66), the Chen workshop version uses bright blue and pink, with the added

detail of gold flower stamps. The bicycle is also redesigned with bright colors on the

wheel spokes and handlebars. These approaches are an integral part of revitalizing the

auspicious functioning of the image and thus further legitimizing his adaptation. As Chen

says, “the more vibrant, the more auspicious, and the more people are drawn to it.” Chen

has used these elements in ways that innovate, invigorate, or renew the auspicious quality

of older works. This illustrates how the very notion of auspiciousness is neither fixed nor

bounded, but rather a site of creative experimentation as well as a way to highlight one’s

unique skill set.

Since the prints in the Museum’s collection were drawn from local households to

begin with, it is in a circular, if not ironic, fashion by which Chen’s copies serve to

reinscribe and reactivate those works within the domestic spaces and seasonal rituals of

his workshop and the households that display his works. Chen’s combined strategy of

mimesis and innovation thus allows his workshop to play on the tension between two

poles: on one hand adapting to the unstable trends of a competitive market by claiming

historical authenticity, and on the other, retaining a distinct group identity through visual

difference. This approach, which creatively bridges past and present while maintaining

the auspicious efficacy of the images, has proven successful in that his family has now

gained celebrity status in the national nianhua market as well as received government

funding for a new workshop.

By tracing the trajectory of the Museum works, one can see how these move from

the space of the local household to the government museum, and back to the workshop

and household. Chen’s emulation or copying of these works reflects an effort to claim or

reclaim his workshop’s access to Mianzhu’s nianhua heritage, where heritage is

approached as a living body of knowledge that must be put into practice through

continued innovation and experimentation. His efforts also reflect a strategic marketing

move to appropriate high-status examples of traditional Mianzhu nianhua that are widely

known to contemporary audiences. This is similar to practices in earlier times, where

groups of rural craftsmen purchased the works of famous painters in the urban center of

Mianzhu, then mass-produced them in their workshops. Interestingly, the notion of the

authentic, historic original, as officialized by museum practices, does not hold much

ground in nianhua production and use, which is based on collaborative work, mass

production, and an annual renewal of auspicious images.

Li Fangfu, like Chen, was also a member of the Nianhua Research Society during

the print reform era and again in its current incarnation, but he takes a very different

approach to redesigning historical works. Li is also from a rural background and spent

many years as a farmer and a painter in local workshops, where he was trained in the

final stage of detail application. In contrast to Chen, Li usually works alone, as his

children have moved away from Mianzhu to find work in larger cities. Although he also

creates prints, Li’s works are mostly larger format hanging scrolls or handscrolls for

interior display and long-term use. While Chen foregrounds his use of color and stamping,

Li redesigns and enhances the auspicious meaning of historical works through

highlighting his signature brushwork skills.

When asked about his approach to painting, Li links his brushwork directly to the

auspicious power of his images. According to Li, the embodied skill of the painter

becomes the direct vehicle for infusing an image with auspicious powers. Li argues that

the reason why people still buy hand painted images instead of photocopied ones is

because of they believe in the power of the painter’s touch: “A person who makes

pictures can ward off portentous forces, furthermore, an image maker possesses a

righteous spirit. The image fully reveals the quality of this spirit.” Pointing to his

painting, he continues, “take a look at this pair of paintings, look at the eyes in the face.

To paint this properly, the entire portrait should reveal an energetic spirit, no matter

where you stand or at which angle you view this, the image should be looking back at

you” (fig. 70). According to Li, the very last step in painting figures and creatures is the

“opening of the eyes” 􀤷􀽍 in which the painter adds the pupils to the eyes to awaken the

deity. In speaking about the door deity, Li’s use of language positions the deity as a

living, animated being. He further explains how the ritual efficacy of the images is tied to

the internal state of the highly trained painter:

An image-maker’s internal state should be still in order to transmit a righteous

spirit; without this, the image fails. Without this, calligraphers would not have

expressive, upright characters; just by looking at their writing you can see their

level of internal development.307

Li goes on to describe how this skill is only attained through gradual, painstaking training

under a learned master. His own training was based on long hours of repetitive copying:

“I practiced so much, my wrists bled. After this, my hand was strong and controlled. Any

smallest movement should reveal your highest standard. To do this practice is to learn by

doing, and that learning never ends.” By pointing to a form of embodied knowledge,

gradually attained over time and through diligent training, Li foregrounds the

transmission of this knowledge through the mark of the painter. In doing so, he positions

his works as irreproducible and unique:

There is a myth from back in the day, that explains why door deities should be

made by hand. There was also mechanized printing back then, but these did not

sell as well as the works made by hand. Firstly, the painter was believed to repel

evil and secondly, the painter has an upright righteous spirit. This righteous spirit

is painted into the picture.308

Li Fangfu is well known for his reappropriation of the tianshuijiao, a work that has been

touted by the revival movement as an extraordinary example of Mianzhu nianhua

brushwork. Taking what was a small-format image made with leftover papers and paints,

Li completely transforms the historical format into a carefully painted work on oversized

vertical scrolls (fig. 71). This large format is usually reserved for high-end paintings that

are displayed inside high-ceilinged halls or on either side of a tall indoor entrance, and

are thus intended for permanent display rather than temporary use. Li appropriates the

prominent status of historic tianshuijiao, redesigns the genre using expensive materials,

307 Li Fangfu, in interview with the author, Mianzhu, Sichuan, June 2006.

308 Ibid.

and has sold such works to visiting collectors and researchers for high prices. In doing so,

Li has positioned himself in direct competition with the museum’s giftshop, which also

sells high-end nianhua products based on reproductions of historical works.

Both Chen and Li have placed emphasis on the auspicious power of their works,

which they refer to both as “folk art” and as living deities for ritual use. The two

categories are not treated as oppositional or exclusive, but comfortably inclusive or even

desirable. In contrast to the Museum, which tends to marginalize nianhua’s ritual

histories, Chen and Li straddle both worlds to play to the folk art market as well as the

ritual print economy. Thus, the Chen and Li workshops have developed strategies to take

advantage of folk art discourses while also challenging institutional definitions of

heritage that narrowly focus on tangible assets. These examples illustrate the contested

nature of nianhua heritage, where meaning is asserted through embodied practices

involving historic designs as well as a “range of activities that include remembering,

commemoration, communicating and passing on knowledge and memories, asserting and

expressing identity and social and cultural values and meanings.”309

I will stress here the critical need to keep in view how these embodied practices

not only shape the meaning of specific works but also how the works themselves activate

and enable certain practices. Both Chen and Li play off of historic designs in ways that

boost their position in the marketplace, enabling them to capitalize on the high status of

these works while asserting their own unique claims to heritage. For these workshops, the

privilege of having access to old woodblocks comes down to a matter of livelihood and

survival in a competitive business where they must compete against a range of state-led

revival activities. The significance of heritage is not only negotiated through abstract

309 Smith, The Uses of Heritage, 83.

discourses that construct the value of certain objects, but also, perhaps even more

critically in this case, through direct forms of embodied engagement with those objects

deemed valuable.

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