Fashion models and beautiful women in traditional costumes grace posters from the 1920s and 1930s in promotion of different commodities, which, in fact, mirrors the interchange between Eastern and Western cultures at the time. Since China started to reform and open up to the outside world, posters have been undergoing many changes. Their forms, contents and printing skills have opened up a splendid and colourful world for us. The exhibits, provided by the China Rural Art Society under the Ministry of Culture, include clay sculpture, embroidery, puppets, leather figures for shadow play, cloth toys and decorations, paper-cuts, masks and lunar New Year's posters. Folk art, characterized by exaggerated but simple shapes and bold colours, showcase the abundant creativity of ordinary people.
Folk artists find creativity from daily life.
Yang Jin from Beijing paints on beans and arranges them in different patterns. The beans relive the old customs like drinking and chatting in tea houses, carrying brides in gorgeous sedan chairs, going to temple fairs during the Spring Festival and selling of sweets by pedlars. Wang Haixia, deputy secretary-general of the China Rural Art Society, says the value of folk arts also lies in the fact that they preserve history in a beautiful and imaginative way. Each piece reflects the social, economic, cultural and even political conditions of the time of its making or of the maker's interpretation of the time. For example, Yangliuqing of Tianjin, Weifang of Shandong Province, Taohuawu of Jiangsu Province and Wuqiang of Hebei Province have been acknowledged as the four most famous towns of New Year's poster-making in China.