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Details
- Other Title
- Child with a blue pipe
- Alternative title
- 连生贵子
- Place where the work was made
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China
- Cultural origin
- Yangliuqing style
- Date
- (circa 1980)
- Media category
- Materials used
- colour woodcut
- Dimensions
- 37.5 x 51.5 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Professor Wang Shucun 1986
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 77.1986
- Copyright
- © The Artist
- Artist information
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Unknown
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
In China there has been a long folk art tradition whereby auspicious prints such as this one were produced and sold in towns and villages all over the country as part of the home decorations for Lunar New Year celebration. Being local products, the style of these prints varied according to the district. In the Yangliuqing style, this print is from the market town of Dongfengtai in Tianjin, a municipality east of Beijing. This kind of prints were produced in surrounding villages and brought to Dongfengtai for sale.
Yangliuqing New Year prints started in late 14 century and were popular until late 19th century, but the production declined at the end of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Since 1950s, with the government's support and promotion, Yangliuqin New Year prints returned to their prosperity. However, in early 1980s, government price reforms increased the state subsidies for agricultural products and made agriculture a more lucrative source of income than the print-making which subsequently ceased.
The motifs of lotus flower, full lotus pods, and the wind instrument, sheng, played by the pink-cheeked boy all relate to an auspicious idiom in Chinese, lian sheng gui zi [连生贵子], meaning a succession of noble sons. By using homophonic words in Chinese, sheng is also the pronunciation of the word for giving birth, lotus and lotus seeds are correspondent to succession and sons.
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Places
Where the work was made
China