 When
the chill north wind is blowing hard, and winter is at
its most powerful, it is also the time that the Chinese
New Year draws in. Folks will make lots of preparations
such as repainting the walls white, making new clothes,
and cooking big meals for the New Year's eve. One of the
prevailing customs is buying and posting New Year pictures,
especially in the countryside of North China. Some red
lanterns hanging from the eaves and the auspicious New
Year poster inside the room can best describe the festive
atmosphere.
The New Year poster, as a special type of art, enjoys
a long history and far-reaching influence. Many artists
are farmers who express their good wishes and future
dreams in the poster. It also reflects their ideal life
and artistic taste.
 The
Poplar and Willow Green county is located 20 kilometers
in the west of Tianjin. It is said the place was named
by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty because of the
fascinating scenery there. An old Chinese saying goes
like this: A great land is propitious for giving birth
to great men. It is also true with great art. The New
Year poster emerged and took shape there in as early
as the 16th century. It is characterized by the distinctive
local colorism, thus, widly liked by the people. The
poster came into being in the Ming dynasty and became
extremely popular at the beginning of the Qing. It is
a wood engraving and watercolor block printing, colored
finally by hand. Its content varies from historic stories,
legends, local operas, folk customs, landscapes and
so on. Most of them are closely connected with people's
lives.
The most well-known poster is called 'having grain
to spare for years coming.' There is a lovely smiling
boy sitting in front of some lotus flowers and holding
a big carp in his arms. In Chinese, lotus is homonymic
with "consecutive," and fish with having something
more than enough. Chinese consider this picture a good
omen for the coming year. And it is so widly spread
that it almost becomes a  representative
work of the New Year poster. There is also an interesting
story about it. In the Qing Dynasty once a rich man
passed by the Poplar and Willow Green County on a boat.
He was fascinated by the vivid poster and bought one
home. At night the boy turned alive, and came down from
the picture, giving him a big carp as gift. But the
man was so greedy that he placed a large basin before
the poster and wanted to make a fortune from it. Later
the boy grew tired of him and went back to his hometown
with his carp, leaving the poster a piece of white paper.
The New Year poster also develops with time and becomes
an exquisite decoration nowadays. Not only do people
buy them as gifts, but tourists take them home as souvenirs
as well.
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