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Tai Liping

Tai Liping and his wife
copyright Tai Liping

Tai Liping is the uncontested authority for Chinese folk art prints - in the West often called New Year prints. His passionate fight for the preservation and revitalization of this more than 500 year old art form, have earned him great respect inside and outside of China. His artworks have been shown in Europe, Australia and Asia. And newspapers like the European Times reported about Tai Liping.

For information about Chinese folk art prints, please read our article titled Chinese New Year prints.

Son of Tai Yi

Tai Liping was born into a family who practised the old tradition of Chinese folk art printmaking for centuries. His father was Tai Yi and the family lived in Fengxiang in Shanxi Province, a little village famous for being a center of the popular Chinese print for centuries.

When little Tai was 6 years old, his father began to teach him how to make prints. Another teacher was his grandfather. At that time, father and grandfather were respected and honored artisans and artists. Tai's grandfather was chairman of Xi Feng Shi Ying painters association for Chinese folk artists in Shanxi Province. And his father Tai Yi was director of the New Year printmakers association of Fengxiang.

The Storm of the Cultural Revolution

Tai Liping

Jin De on Horse
copyright Tai Liping

One would expect a normal career for Tai Liping in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. But destiny had planned some challenges and tough times for Tai Liping.

In 1966 - Tai was then 14 years old - the Cultural Revolution swept over China with a huge impact on its people, economy and culture. It was initiated by Mao Zedong and his wife, who began to organize groups of students in the Red Guards movement. The credo of the movement was to destroy the old order and culture, and rebuild a new Communist order on the ashes of the old.

The impact was terrible - especially for persons like Tai's family who made a living by producing "decadent" art. Many people were beaten up or killed during the Cultural Revolution. Red Guards flocked into the countryside and systematically destroyed whatever looked like old values. Many cultural assets were destroyed. The old craft of woodblock printmaking was one of them. Worse than the destruction of prints was the destruction of old woodblocks.

The Cultural Revolution raged for ten years until Mao's death in 1976 and the beginning of reforms under Deng Xiaoping.

Renaissance out of Ashes

Tai Liping

Jinde on Horse
copyright Tai Liping

After the Red Guards had disappeared, Tai Liping - now 24 years old - began to collect the remains of old woodblocks from remote rural areas in the Northeast of China and recut new blocks after the old designs.

Today Tai Liping can proudly look back upon a long period of hard work. At the turn of the century and roughly 25 years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, there are again more than 350 designs of traditional Fengxiang folk art prints available. Out of these 350 designs, 30 come from old blocks that could be saved intact and 240 are woodblocks that were recarved after patterns of old ones.

Well - and what about the rest? Here comes the good news. These are new designs created by Tai Liping and his artist and artisan colleagues! And this is indeed a good sign that the old tradition is back to life again.

Recognition

Tai Liping

General Bai Attacks Qingchuan
copyright Tai Liping

Tai Liping encountered obstacles and setbacks. But he managed to get back into the footsteps of his grandfather and father. Today, like his grandfather, he is director of Fengxiang New Year Printmakers association of Shanxi Province.

But Tai Liping achieved more than that. His engagement for the traditional Chinese folk print made him famous beyond China's borders. Tai's prints were shown in Japan, Australia, France and Hong Kong.

Tai had written a book about Fengxiang woodcut prints. His book and his prints were ordered by more than a dozen museums in Europe and in Japan and it was mentioned in an article by the European Times (newspaper) as a precious book of Chinese folk art.

Tai's Workshop

The making of an original Tai print is basically the result of a hand-made process, a teamwork of his wife and him. Although the workshop is now a kind of modern kitchen environment with little romantic appeal, the production method is in nothing different from centuries ago.

Please take a look at a series of photographs taken in Tai Liping's home that show how Tai Liping prints are made.

Tai's Seals

Tai Liping

Shi Xing

Tai Liping

Rong Xing

Tai Liping uses three different seals:

Shi Xing - The official seal of the painter's association of Xi Feng (West Fengxiang)
Tai Liping seal
Rong Xing - Another name used by Tai's family at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Acknowledgment

Our thanks go to Ms. Jin Sha from Hangzhou in China. She provided us with the information about Tai Liping and his family and supplied us with the photographs of the family and the blocks. All images are copyright protected. Any distribution is prohibited.

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