Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

Доклады Международного конгресса по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки. Т. 1. 2020 435 Maiatskii Dmitrii (FAAS, SPbU, St Petersburg, Russia) Collection of “Xin Nianhua” in the Oriental Fund of the St Petersburg State University Academic Library 1 Summary : The paper is devoted to the study of an album of Chinese “ xin nianhua ” prints (the other names are: “new nianhua ”, “new Spring festival pictures”, “revolution- ary nianhua ”, “new Chinese popular engravings” etc.), recently found in the Oriental department of the Academic library of St Petersburg University (SPbU). In the first part of this paper the author offers a short historical review of the genres of “ nianhua ” and “ xin nianhua ”, supplemented by some information about their study in Russia and abroad. The author explains the difference between “ nianhua ” and “ xin nianhua ” genres and undertakes a systematic description of the SPbU’s album consisting of 60 prints. The pictures are classified according to their size, structure and thematic content. Based on a visual analysis the author divides the pictures into 16 thematic groups and characterizes them. The large corps of the pictures is related to main historical and political events that happened in China and in the world during the years of 1949 and 1950 or a little earlier. These pictures had a great political meaning for the Communist party of China and were used as a sort of propaganda, for “ xin nianhua ” were very cheap and easy to understand, thus convenient for Chinese common people. At the same time the author tries to find the ties between traditional nianhua and xin nianhua pictures. It has been found that although the content of the pictures was absolutely modern, and the printing method had been changed, the artists borrowed some traditional ideas, forms, images and details typical for old nianhua . These observations are illustrated by visual materials given in the article. The paper may attract attention of scholars who study Chinese, as well as political history of China of the mid-20 th century. The paper also could be used for teaching students in sinology. Keywords : Chinese popular art; Chinese popular prints; Chinese New Year pic- tures; nianhua ; new nianhua ; canon in art; transformation of the art canon. 1 The study was supported by the RFBR, research project No. 19-59-52001 “Commerce, Folk Beliefs, Arts and Culture on Traditional Chinese Woodblock Prints from Understudied Collections of Russia and Taiwan”.