HKUST Exhibits Gems of New Year Prints
"This is the first time that 60 precious New Year Prints from the Shanghai Library are exhibited. Most of them are original pictures created and printed during the late Qing Dynasty and early Minguo Period," said Min-min Chang, the University Librarian. "We hope that cultural exchange between libraries in Shanghai and Hong Kong will be further strengthened by this exhibition," she said.
As an ancient folk art, New Year Prints can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty. They originated as "door gods" to drive out evil spirits, and flourished in the Ming Dynasty with the emergence of the northern New Year Prints represented by Yangliuqing in Tianjin and the southern New Year Prints represented by Taohuawu in Suzhou. Since then, New Year Prints have evolved into a formal folk art, and constitute an important component in the development of art in China.
New Year Prints have been a folk favorite by virtue of their rich content, colorful pictures, vivid characters and auspicious themes. Through appreciation of New Year Prints, one can get a better understanding of China's folk customs, literature, traditional operas and history.
The exhibits can be divided into four categories: folk customs, local operas, folk stories and current affairs. An opening ceremony will be held on Tuesday, 14 December 1999, preceded by an art talk. Details are as follows:
| Gallery Talk on Chinese New Year Prints | |||
| Title: | History of Chinese New Year Prints and their Cultural Value | ||
| Speaker: | Zhang Wei, Shanghai Library | ||
| Date: | Tuesday, 14 December 1999 | ||
| Time: | 3-4 pm | ||
| Venue: | Rm 7332, 7/F, Academic Building, HKUST, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon | ||
| Language: | Putonghua | ||
| Gems of New Year Prints--An Exhibition from the Shanghai Library Collection | |||
| Opening Reception | |||
| Date: | Tuesday, 14 December 1999 | ||
| Time: | 4:30 pm | ||
| Venue: | Ping Yuan and Kinmay W. Tang Gallery, University Library, HKUST, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon | ||
| Officiating Guests: | Prof Ma Yuanliang, Director of Shanghai
Library Prof Chia-Wei Woo, President of HKUST |
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| Exhibition | |||
| Dates: | 15 December 1999-17 March 2000 | ||
| Venue: | Ping Yuan and Kinmay W. Tang Gallery, University Library, HKUST, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon | ||
| Opening Hours: | Mon-Fri | 8 am-11pm | |
| Sat | 9 am-7 pm | ||
| Sun | 1 pm-9 pm | ||
| Holiday and semester break hours will be posted at the library entrance and on the web at http://library.ust.hk | |||
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