Chinese New Year Paintings at the UCLA East Asian Library

In celebrating the lunar New Year of the Ram, the UCLA East Asian Library is displaying a series of traditional Chinese New Year paintings reproduced and donated by Shanghai Library, the second largest library in China and a long-time partner of the UCLA Library through the "Window of Shanghai" program.

Chinese New Year painting is a unique genre of Chinese painting. As a custom, the paintings are often posted by Chinese families in their homes in celebrating the lunar New Year, carrying hopes and blessing for an auspicious and happy New Year. The selected 22 New Year paintings were from the Shanghai Library's collection of over 4,000 pieces of New Year paintings produced at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1640–1911), focusing on the Shanghai local products and covering eight topics, including "Happy Family", "Auspicious New Year", "Wishes for Fertility", and "Children at Play."