Treasures from the Brother Stones

circa 1950  


This powerful image is also by Yan Han, who went to the Taihang Mountains and worked as an army artist.  Many of his works are now held in the National Art Museum of China.
 

On 30 June 1947, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping led the main force of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army as they crossed the Yellow River in southwest Shandong.  

1950

This nianhua depicting a busy room full of people at a local election. Some cast votes into a green vase at the left, while others appear to be holding a heated discussion about the candidates and the election.

A man at the table wearing a blue cap is helping an elderly woman, who is probably illiterate, to write down the candidate’s name.   

circa 1959
Zhang Jingwen

Chinese woodblock nianhua in colour, showing a group of women making shoes by hand for the People’s Liberation Army who were fighting on the front line. Man to the right of the picture is collecting the finished shoes.

circa 1950
Deng Shu

A group of women and children are reading and learning together.  In the centre two young women are teaching an elderly woman to read. 

In the background a woman and a child were practicing writing characters on a blackboard.  

circa 1949

The upper section of the nianhua shows a combined Chinese lunar and Gregorian calendar for 1949 accompanied by various agricultural activities for each solar period during the year.  

Below, a rural scene depicts two farmers and a peasant woman walking to work with a bullock and a donkey. 

1950
Jing Lang

A festival scene of local villagers helping a serviceman’s family to prepare for the Chinese New Year. Some decorate the house with couplets and red flags, others deliver food, and a few play festive music.

The original nianhua from which this print was created, was published in 1947 by the Chinese artist Jin Lang. A copy of the original nianhua is now held in the National Art Museum of China.

circa 1983  

The upper section of this nianhua depicts the Kitchen God with his two wives. At the edges, we can see people bringing offerings, usually food, to the Kitchen God's temple. 

The nianhua prints or other paper images of the Kitchen God are usually placed above the family stove. People believe that at the end of the year, the ever-watchful Kitchen God will report the family affairs of the past year to the Jade Emperor.

Collection of original 7 ink drawings by Chinese poet Gu Cheng, who was a prominent Chinese modern poet.

This drawing was inscribed by Gu Cheng and given to John Minford and his spouse Rachel.

circa 1980
Wang Shaoshi   

Inscribed and presented by the President of Chinese Dream of the Red Chamber Society, Feng Qiyong to David Hawkes.

The twelve beauties of Jinling are the twelve main female characters in the Chinese classics “Dream of the Red Chamber”, such as Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai.