Chinese New Year cultural carnival hits Jing'an
A Chinese New Year themed cultural carnival is ongoing at the Shanghai Cultural and Art Hall in Jing'an District, with the display of traditional New Year paintings from different dynasties and areas of China, as well as scrolls with various styles of Chinese calligraphy.
Some other traditional Chinese handicrafts like paper cutting, jade and wooden sculptures, and engravings using china and bamboo are also exhibited at the event, which runs from February 3 to 11. Performances are also given at the space, including folk dance yangge, lion dancing, martial arts and puppet shows.
Two girls look at a wall of Fu calligraphy while a young lady performs traditional music on a Chinese plucked instrument.
Children can also learn a skill for themselves from the art masters there through signing up on an online platform "Culture Cloud", which includes things such as New Year painting, dough figurine making, Chinese knots, paper art, palm leave weaving and clay figurine making.
A woman takes a picture of the red tags carrying people's wishes that hang on a tree.
A highlight of the New Year woodblock-printed painting exhibition is the first face-to-face "talk" of the Southern Tao and Northern Liu in Shanghai, in the form of paintings from Suzhou's Taohuawu genre and Tianjin's Yangliuqing genre.
As for New Year scrolls, 108 local calligraphers were invited to write the Chinese character Fu — which stands for good fortune — in their own styles, and these works were arranged into a huge Fu figure.
Chen Qi, vice chairman of Shanghai Artist’s Association, explains a New Year painting to visitors.
The exhibition also invited 55 well-known calligraphers to write sentences from famous New Year scrolls in Chinese history, including the world's earliest, "san yang shi bu, si xu chu kai" ("When the spring comes the sunshine begins to warm everything, and life begins afresh"), which was found in Mogaoku Grottos at Dunhuang, Gansu Province.
A man demonstrates calligraphy at the event.
Kids can use brushes to create their own New Year scrolls there with the guidance of calligraphers.
A fair of cultural and innovative products is also provided at the carnival, where visitors can buy special art works like postcard sets of the Year of the Dog painted by 12 local artists, dog-themed seals, and New Year painting textile goods.
Two girls carefully inspect the Fu characters on the wall of Fu calligraphy.
