Nearly 160 historic New Year picture stencils have been discovered in Wuqiang County, north China's Tianjin Municipality. 

Experts, who came to appraise the discovery on Sunday, said six to seven sets of the stencils had been thought to have been lost for several hundred years.

The newly discovered stencils, dating from the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the early days of the Republic of China (1911-1949), were of great value for the research of New Year pictures, said Feng Jicai, president of Chinese Folk Writers and Artists Association.

New Year pictures are so called because they are widely used by Chinese families, especially farmers, to celebrate the lunar new year.

In addition to the traditional themes of children, fair figures and deities to protect from evil, new subjects such as sports, sciences, nature and pastoral scenery are now becoming more popular.

Jia Zhengbang, whose family have been made New Year pictures for generations in Wuqiang County, happened to find the precious stencils, which he thought were hidden by his father, an experienced handicraftsman who died several years ago.

Wuqiang County is one of the five production centers of woodcut New Year pictures in China. Many pictures produced in the county have won international prize.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2003)