綿竹年畫

Mianzhu New Year paintings

Mianzhu New Year paintings is one of four Chinese New Year paintings， whose outlines is first printed in white paper， and then colored by the folk artists.When I was a little girl， the white background New Year paintings were pasted on doors of every family. At that time it seemed that only the traditional New Year paintings can be bought. Hawkers just called 2 Jiao for each piece of this kind of paintings. Later machine-printed New Year paintings became a good substitute to the traditional one， whose background is Chinese red and whose color is rich which made it more popular. During the time that traditional Mianzhu New Year paintings took downward turns， the traditional paintings more likely existed in the museum.

With a strong support from local government Mianzhu New Year paintings have a sign of recovery these days. Instead of serving local people， it aims at the high-end market usually as a gift to family and friends. As a result price nowadays naturally rises up sharply. 2 Jiao for one piece or 1 Yuan for 5 pieces before， but now a foldout brochure containing 5 pieces of New Year paintings is sold for 60 to 70 Yuan. Businessmen are certainly in pursuit of innovation， but the innovation of traditional New Year paintings are mostly focused on the application level. For example traditional New Year paintings’ pattern is printed on the bookmark， luggage， kite， or cup mat， and the form of paper New Year paintings changes into pottery version of the New Year paintings. The classic works are very few such as Zhao Gong Zhen Zhai， San Xing Gao Zhao and etc. In addition to those classic， there is rarely other fresh and new works. At present artists with creation ability sell their new creative works to businessmen， charging a copyright fee. Then businessmen make the woodcut， print and coloring. From this perspective， the recovery of Mianzhu New Year paintings is not actually of the cultural significance， but of the commercial application. Cultural heritage requires a group of people to inherit and innovate.

As for the artists， they fall into two categories， school artists and folk artists. Liu Zhumei is a representative of the former， and Li Fangfu belongs to the latter. I’ve ever had a communication with Li Fangfu the old. He is the successor of north style of Mianzhu New Year paintings which is more straightforward and whose coloring is bolder. An old man about eighty years full of sap like a young man was the first image to me， and during the conversation I was touched by his pride and confidence. I’ve ever seen Teacher Liu Zhumei’s works which is very delicate and definitely worth collecting. When I was young a new works of New Year paintings called “dance” by teacher Liu caught in my eyes in the New Year paintings Museum as a result that the background of the picture are many handprints which gave people a dancing feeling. Here it comes that a key to innovation is people.

As a local civilian， I hope that my hometown’s traditional New Year paintings can continue to pass on. Now that we have seen the commercial operation makes it appear a signs of recovery， but it wasn't enough. Time will see that business in New Year paintings drives the traditional culture turn into much stronger.

綿竹年畫是中國四大年畫之一，這種年畫先用木板在白紙上印出畫面的輪廓，再由藝人們著色。當我還是一個小女孩的時候，家家戶戶的門上都貼著這種白色底子的年畫。依稀記得那個時候只有這種傳統的年畫可以買到。小販手里的這種年畫一幅只賣2毛錢。后來機器印刷的年畫以其中國紅的底色和畫面豐富的色彩更受市場的歡迎。在那段綿竹年畫衰落的時期，傳統的綿竹年畫只存在于博物館當中。

現在綿竹年畫在政府的大力扶植下有了起色。但是現在的年畫已經不比從前，它面向高端市場通常作為禮品饋贈親朋。這樣一來價格也自然上去了，以前2毛錢一幅1塊錢5幅的年畫，現在一本包含5幅年畫的折頁畫冊要價60元到70元。當然年畫商人們在追求創新，但是這種創新大多集中傳統年畫的應用層面上。比如將傳統年畫圖案印在書簽、箱包、風箏、杯墊上面，將傳統的紙質年畫做成陶版的年畫。綿竹年畫的經典之作就那么幾幅，比如趙公鎮宅、三星高照。除了這些經典之作，現在鮮有讓人耳目一新的作品出現。目前有年畫創作能力的老師們將自己新創作的年畫賣給年畫商人，收取一定的版權費。年畫商人再制版、印刷、著色。從這個層面來看，綿竹年畫的復蘇并非真正文化意義上的，更像是商業應用上的復蘇。文化遺產需要有一批人來繼承和創新。

說道年畫藝人，可以分為兩類：學院派的老師，如劉竹梅等；民間藝人，如李芳福老人。我和這位老人有過一次接觸，這位老人是綿竹年畫北派的繼承人。北派畫風比較粗獷，著色非常大膽。八十歲的高齡還有幾分年輕人的血氣，談吐間被他的自信和驕傲打動。我看過劉竹梅老師的手繪年畫，畫工細膩筆法老道絕對值得收藏。記得小時候在年畫館看過的劉老師新創作的年畫“舞”，畫面的背景是上下翻飛的手印，著實讓人產生一種舞動的感覺。由此看來，年畫創新的核心還在于人。

作為一個綿竹人，希望故鄉的傳統年畫能夠不斷地傳承下去。現在我們已經看到了商業運作使得它有了復蘇的跡象，但是這還遠遠不夠。我們將看到圍繞年畫的商業帶動傳統文化的逐步走強。