Yang Luoshu, a 92-year-old man from Shandong Province, is among those who show a great love woodblock (木板) painting. Yang has worked as a craftsman (工匠) for 77 years, always practising his carving (雕刻) skills.
"When I was young, I often saw my father carving, and I was curious (好奇的) about it," Yang said. "One day, my father went out for a while. I quickly took up his knife and carved on a woodblock. That was my first carving experience." Since then, Yang has carved different kinds, including flowers, birds, mountains, rivers and traditional Chinese gods. "Though carving is hard in general, carving gods is especially difficult, for their lively facial expressions. Still, I can manage it." Yang said confidently, and he also got a prize as a master in 2010.
Being the 19th generation (代) painter in the family, Yang runs a century-old family. workshop, and he is now working with a group of experienced craftsmen. They make around 150,000 New Year paintings every year, which are not only sold in China, but also in other countries such as the USA, Singapore and Japan.
Yang Luoshu loves Yangjiabu New Year woodblock painting very much. It appeared during the Ming Dynasty around 600 years ago. It is now one of China's three important traditional paintings for the New Year, together with Tianjin's Yangliuqing and Suzhou's Taohuawu. "I want to keep this alive." Yang said. For Yang, the next thing to do is to find good successors (继承人) to make sure the skills are passed down to younger generations.
