New Year picture samples on display at the National
Art Museum of China in Beijing. Photos by Jiang Dong

The Festive Art Show presents folk art, Spring Festival couplets and calligraphy through the ages and up to the present. Zhu Linyong reports

There are more than 20 different types of temple fairs in Beijing during the Spring Festival - but nothing quite like the "cultural temple fair" at the National Art Museum of China.

Unlike other temple fairs where you can buy various snacks, kebabs and handicrafts from across China, the on-going Festive Art Show offers over 500 kinds of folk art, New Year pictures in particular, and calligraphy works.

"This is not the routine type of festival show. It has a fresh approach and will change people’s stereotypical perceptions of Chinese art," says museum dean Fan Di’an.

On entering the museum, one finds a lively Lunar New Year atmosphere, full of gold frills, red lanterns, paper-cuttings of tigers, conspicuously large Spring Festival couplets and hanging scrolls on the 10 m columns.

The centerpiece couplet in the entrance was composed by emperor Meng Chang, in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on a peach board, in AD 964.

Widely believed to be the first couplet for New Year celebrations, the couplet reads in Chinese: "Xin nian na yu qing", and "jia jie hao chang chun". It means "enjoy the boon of our forefathers in the New Year as the festival ushers in a beautiful spring season".

On the first floor of the museum, viewers can explore a maze of folk art, as a dozen exhibition halls have been converted and decorated to mimic various public or private spaces.

For instance, viewers will find lifelike yingbi, or screen doors, painted with tigers, or cherubic babies, alongside such auspicious images as carp, peaches and lotus that signify fortune, prosperity and good luck.