Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)
FERENCZY Mária: A modernizáció megjelenése a századeleji kínai ábrázolásokon
masters, is wearing a long moustache, and has curly black hair which comes down from under his red turban. On his right forearm a falcon sits, with pale yellow and light brown feathers; his left hand holds the leash of a slender, long-legged, light brown hunting dog. (The muzzle of the dog is slightly sheep-shaped; its long and bushy tail curls upwards.) The English gentleman next to the falconer wears a frock-coat and trousers with horizontal stripes. He also wears a grey riding cap, on his waist there is a white buckled belt, and a red belt-bag. The second gentleman wears a sky-blue rimmed hat and a patterned cloth, with orange boots. The third Englishman wears a black hat with a white ribbon, a black coat with gold figures, and striped red trousers. All the three Englishmen wear large red collars with white edges. Explanation: English gentlemen like these, going to hunt with their Indian servants, were certainly seen by Chinese working in foreign concessions. This way of depicting foreigners, leaning towards caricature, while aiming at grasping essential features and abounding in details and dispensing with background, is akin to the older type of theatre pictures. Wealth is undoubtedly represented by it, although its function remains unclear: although made in the same workshop as the New Year pictures, and having been bought together with them, it looks like an illustration (to a book?) rather than a traditional requisite of a traditional feast. 61 Parallel cases to me unknown. This Yang-liu-ch'ing collection has been brought together by a whole range of lucky accidents: with the exception of the images of gatekeeper-gods and those warding off evil spirits, the main types are represented by one specimen at least, although their quality is uneven. The earliest piece (Imperial Birthday, no. 13.) was produced in 1894, another one (The God of the Hearth, no.l.) in 1911. The remaining ones originate from the first decade of the Chinese Republic, the beginning of the disintegration of the traditional Chinese way of life (at least in the cities on the coast). It has been shown by the above analysis of the prints that their themes, their view of life and their manufacturing is decidedly traditional, as they were still intended to fulfil a traditional role: to represent deities, to surround and to protect the family with good wishes of magic power, and also to adom the house for the feast. However, it has also been shown that certain elements of the changes in the surrounding world appeared, within the traditional framework, in the choice of themes, in the way of representation, in the use of symbols, and in the shaping of the function and the way of production. The richness in themes is astonishing: beside the images of deities conceived in a traditional way (The God of the Hearth, no.l.) and those showing manifest ties with the traditions of high art (Imperial Birthday, no.13, The Herd-boy and the Spinning Damsel at the Heavenly River, no. 3., The Feast of Peaches, no.4.) the richly varied magic symbols and themes taken from late popular literature abound. Of the pictures with magical content even the most traditional ones are of late origin from the point of view of characteristics. With the exception of the picture promising many offspring (no. 6.) they are too crowded with symbols. An obvious example is the picture promising a male offspring of high rank (no. 7.) with puns running into one another. Even the Altar of the Lord of All Souls (no.2.) is no exception:
