New Year Pictures originated from the primitive religions in the remote antiquity. Its preliminary form was pictures of door-gods, which were used to ward off ghosts, witches and evil spirits. The pictures of this period were mostly painted by hand or litho printed. The woodblock New Year pictures appeared after a long time of development and evolution till the Song Dynasty. The present-day woodblock New Year pictures are spread all over China, having 20-30 places of production. The New Year pictures in Tianjin's Yangliuqing, Shandong's Weifang, Suzhou's Taohuawu and Sichuan's Mianzhu are vying for beauty with their respective striking styles. But all of these pictures are evolved and formed on the basis of the extensive dissemination of Kaifeng Woodblock New Year Pictures, therefore having an inseparable inheritance relationship with Kaifeng Woodblock New Year Pictures.
