The Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures, a national-level intangible cultural heritage dating back to the Song Dynasty (960 to 1279) in ancient China, have emerged as a bestseller for indoor decoration in their birthplace of Suzhou City of east China's Jiangsu Province in the run-up to the annual Spring Festival, as it can best reflect the Chinese New Year festival vibe in regions south of the Yangtze River.

As the upcoming Lunar New Year will be a Year of the Loong (Dragon), the Taohuawu woodblock pictures for the year have taken on elements of the zodiac Loong (Dragon).

In Suzhou, buying a Taohuawu woodblock picture for home decoration ahead of the Spring Festival is part of the local traditional folk customs. This year, the traditional woodblock painting works featuring "harmony" in combination with dragon elements are favored by young people.

"I particularly like this cartoonish artwork because it is cute, and also it preserves most of the traditional Chinese culture elements," said a student named Wang Zhuoyu who bought a woodblock New Year painting with a cartoonish Loong figure.

It takes about two months from design to completion of a Taohuawu woodcut New Year picture. As the 2024 Spring Festival is approaching, it is also the peak time for woodblock New Year picture making. The workers in charge of printing are working overtime to rush the production, hoping to let more people feel the charm of traditional woodblock New Year pictures.

"We aim to bring the woodblock New Year paintings back into contemporary cultural life. The essence conveyed by the woodblock New Year paintings has remained unchanged from ancient times to the present, which is to depict a beautiful life. We want everyone to see, think about, and use woodblock New Year paintings in their lives," said Qiao Lanrong, Taohuawu woodblock paintings inheritor in Suzhou.

The Loong is the fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac.