Shandong Province
QuanBei Village
DaZhao Village
Lang Village
LiShe Village
LuLiu Village
MiaoJia Village
Xiaozhan Village
Nie Jiazhuang Village
Gaomi City
Weifang City
Gallery
Gaomi City Chapters:
Pu Hui Workshop 1Pu Hui Workshop 2
Village Life
Cultural Heritage
Pu hui posters are unique to Gaomi, Shandong Province and are influenced by the half-drawn, half-printed folk art technique and wood-block New Year posters. The ability to produce multiple prints at once makes pu hui a highly efficient art form (Xianrang and Yang 203).
Although the craft is not as popular as it used to be, Lu explains that paintings themed after family lineage and the God of Fortune remain very popular. Lu's imagery also includes a vase of lotus flowers. The Chinese word for vase (hua-ping) sounds similar to the Chinese word for luck or success, while the lotus flower symbolizes high social rank and good luck. Combined, the vase and flowers indicate a wish for fortune and success without struggle.
The most meaningful of pu hui topics is the lineage painting that details generations of family history. Lu's own lineage painting spans back twenty years and took him a month to finish. Like many lineage paintings, it details family names within a courtyard illustration, symbolic of a proper dwelling place.
Like Lu, Wang's pu hui works are highly symbolic. The symbolism within a work is relevant to its purpose as decoration. A painting of a baby boy riding a qiling (a mythical animal that looks like a horse with antlers), for instance, symbolizes fertility, and is given to newlyweds to hang over the bed. A painting of two young women walking together also ties into the importance of family. When two sons from the same family marry, the painting symbolizes the good-fortune of the new daughters-in-law to get along with each other and maintain peace in the family.
