Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Prints

Yangliuqing prints arose in the late Ming dynasty in the millennium-old town of Yangliuqing, west of Tianjin. The opening of the Grand Canal and the rise of Tianjin's grain transport made the town a trading hub, and the local hard, fine-grained pear wood proved ideal for carving blocks — letting the craft flourish for more than four centuries.

The craft marries carving and painting: outlines are printed from a woodblock, two or three flat colours are overprinted, and artists then fill in and shade the rest by hand with brushes, producing prints that are crisply cut, finely painted and full of life.

Wide-ranging in subject, with chubby-baby images such as "Abundance Year After Year" known to every household, the prints have been called an "encyclopaedia" of folk life and stand as a flagship of Chinese New Year art and Tianjin folk culture.

Yangliuqing town and the Shi Family Courtyard (Yangliuqing Museum) are the best places to see and understand the craft.