In 1900, woodblock maker Wu Jinchen arrived from Laoting County in Hebei at Yuqingwobao, in what is now Qing’an. At New Year he carved images of the God of Wealth, the Kitchen God and door guardians to sell. A 2023 Suihua Evening News feature traces Qing’an’s later art prints to these festive folk images, while distinguishing the early repeated figures from the art tradition that followed.
From the journal
Qing’an prints: from New Year blocks to mountain villages
A woodblock tradition that began with Wu Jinchen’s folk New Year prints grew through family teaching, exchange with Beidahuang artists and today’s school print classes.
In the same city · Suihua ↗A New Year print finds a home in Qing’an
Three generations, then an exchange of ideas
Wu Jinchen’s son Wu Kunshan continued the carving. Wu Kunshan’s nephew Wu Jingxing adapted the family craft, then taught it to his eldest son Wu Yulin in the 1960s. Wu Yulin studied woodblock art with Beidahuang artist Chao Mei; Chao Mei and other artists also came to Qing’an to teach. The exchange helped local artists move from family workshops toward collective creation and a distinct rural style shaped by the hills and villages where the northern mountains meet the Songnen Plain.
Poems carved by a new generation
A 2024 county report offers a view of the craft in a Qing’an classroom. Fourth-grade pupils at Qing’an No. 4 Primary School carved their drawings of classical poems into printing blocks while teachers guided the cutting and helped with coloring. Student Zhang Zijun said his work that day was called “Mountain Dwelling.” The lesson brings the block, the poem and the printed image together at a child’s desk.