Mianzhu County, in Southwest China"s Sichuan Province, is renowned for its woodblock New Year Paintings. The art form is recognized as one of the top five Chinese woodblock New Year paintings along with paintings from Zhuxian Town of Henan Province, Tianjin City"s Yangliuqing Town, Shandong Province"s Weifang City and Taohuawu in Jiangsu Province"s Suzhou city. Mianzhu new year paintings were listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006. Sadly, many of the workshops in Mianzhu were destroyed by the earthquake last May. But now, thanks to generous assistance from Jiangsu Province, the workshops are reopening.

On Monday, the workshop in Penghua Village reopened to the deafening noise of firecrackers. The workshop includes a school and an area for visitors to see how the paintings are made. Over 100 artists show how it"s done.

Fifty-two-year-old Yin Tianrun has been making New Year paintings professionally for 40 years. Yin is delighted to work in the new location and is inspired to make new works.
Artist Yin Tianrun said, "The revival of the art is due to the support of people in Jiangsu. Although New Year paintings are usually made during Spring Festival, I think now is a more appropriate time to do it, to express our appreciation to those who gave us a helping hand."
The reopened workshop links the design, production and marketing processes, to promote the craft.

Jiangsu Province is renowned for its Taohuawu New Year Paintings. It has given nine billion yuan, or 1.3 billion US Dollars, to the quake zone and most of the money has been used to revive cultural traditions.

In the near future, China"s first intangible cultural heritage museum, the Mianzhu New Year Painting Gallery will be completed, and artists say they hope the gallery will help rejuvenate the

(Source: CCTV.com - 2009-05-18)