New Year painting Good Luck from the Qing Dynasty.

With a large-scale exhibition of Chinese New Year paintings being held at the National Art Museum of China, interest in the Chinese folk art has been reignited as thousands of art lovers flock to enjoy the ancient art genre that has been slipping into relative obscurity for several decades.

The exhibition presents nearly 300 Chinese New Year paintings, among which more than 200 pieces are from bygone eras such as the Qing Dynasty （1644-1911）, while the rest were created after the founding of New China, altogether offering a panoramic view of the development of the folk art.

A wide range of pictures with diversified content such as stories from traditional operas, Chinese folktales and scenes expressing Chinese people’s life after the founding of New China, are all being showcased, selected from a large collection of more than 3,000 pieces of New Year paintings.

As a folk art form with the functions of both decoration and expressing people’s greetings for the New Year, the New Year paintings on show feature auspicious and joyous subjects, with concise lines, bright colors and happy atmospheres combined to reflect people’s best wishes for the New Year.

The displayed pieces include almost all of China’s most well-known production locations of New Year paintings, such as Yangliuqing of Tianjin, Taohuawu of Suzhou in Jiangsu, Yangjiabu of Weifang in Shandong and Wuqiang of Hebei, making the exhibition an exciting feast of the art genre.

"It is a very rare chance to see so many pieces of precious New Year paintings together," commented Han Pu, a researcher at the Beijing Research Institute of Culture and History. "Such an exhibition does not only add atmosphere for the New Year, but also helps people know more about the declining folk art."

Han said that except for hanging or pasting New Year paintings on their front doors and interior walls, Chinese people have various customs during the New Year, many of which are of crucial importance in observing and protecting traditional Chinese cultures.