Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)
FERENCZY Mária: A modernizáció megjelenése a századeleji kínai ábrázolásokon
flags do not correspond to this scheme: the white stripe, being the traditional symbol of mourning, has been changed by a brush-stroke into red, the colour of life, in the hands of the children. For the painter this only made sense on a picture that was supposed to contain only symbols of good omen. 58. The hairstyle of the remaining women is more simple, their traditionally shaped clothes are partly striped and checkííered i.e. made of material with patterns alien to traditional Chinese tastes. On the other hand, the clothing of the man with a cigar is of foreign cut, as are the hats, and the riding-cap with green and red segments on the head of the younger child. 59. In WANG 1989: p.130. attempts of this kind launched in northern China by the government are mentioned, giving the prints made on goverment commission a name of their own as propagandist^ New Year prints. According to him, prints of this kind were manufactured in the Ch'i Chien-lung shop of Yang-liu-ch'ing using a poor-quality lithographic process, therefore no samples are given by him. Judging by these, the collection of Wang Shuts'un lacks our New Year picture produced in Fengt'ai with a block-print, marked Yi-hsing-ho and hand-coloured, being probably a unique specimen. 60. The same signature on pictures Magic Picture Promising Many Offspring (no.6.), The Chemise Set with Pearls (no.ll.), and CHPP 1988: nos. 71., 91. 61. In A YING: p.25, after landscapes, the appearance of pictures representing current events is mentioned. Among the latter, pictures showing overseas foreigners are also mentioned. Unequivocally regarded as New Year pictures, no one is shown there. 62. According to WANG 1989: pp.128-130., this happened following the Chinese-Japanese war of 1894-95. 63. Of course, it was the Imperial Birthday picture that reached the Museum from a different source. It is undoubtedly earlier than the others and was not bought in the ninth or tenth year of the Republic, as were the rest. This picture did not lose its topicality in fact: in those years the main state rituals, the imperial sacrifices to Heaven, Earth and Confucius were still performed by the dethroned child-emperor or by the president of the Republic. 64. As pictures in the publications quoted have been chosen by specialists and editors from the existing New Year prints mainly on the basis of artistic quality and adherence to traditions, the appearance of modern technology between the turn of the century and the 1920s is scarcely illustrated by New Year prints in them. A few exceptions: WANG 1959: no. 65. and WANG 1986: no.122. (the vista of T'ang-shan, a mining town); MURI AN, I.: Kitayskiy narodniy lubok. Izdatelstvo Iskusstvo. Moscow 1960. p. 84. (The first railway); NIIYSII no.IX. (1989. VI.), p.21. (An iron bridge with Yang-ko dancers); KNK 1987: p.17. (no.l. — in fact, a magic picture promising prosperity: on a village street the wish-fulfilling precious stone is being pushed by the god of wealth on a wheelbarrow while on the sky treasures are being brought on a biplane). 65. This was not required as a support or a criticism of tradition: the expenses of building the Yiho-yüan and of the birthday festivies were covered by the taxes intended to build up a naval force. 66. Lithography has been known in China since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Cf. A YING: p. 24., YANG-LIU—CH'ING: p.4.
