Yang Luoshu, 93, a representative inheritor of the Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings. (Photo/Huangfu Wanli)

As the Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year, approaches, people in Yangjiabu Village of Weifang, east China’s Shandong province, have already started to make traditional handcrafted woodblock paintings for the upcoming festival, which will fall on Feb. 5 this year.

With a history of over 600 years, these Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings represent one of the three major woodblock New Year painting styles in China.

As an art form of New Year paintings derived from folk culture, Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings were among the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects to be listed by China’s State Council in 2006.