The Cult of Happiness

Download or read book The Cult of Happiness written by James A. Flath and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History and art come together in this definitive discussion of the Chinese woodblock print form of nianhua, literally "New Year pictures." James Flath analyzes the role of nianhua in the home and later in the theatre and relates these artworks to the social, cultural, and political milieu of North China as it was between the late Qing dynasty and the early 1950s. Among the first studies in any field to treat folk art as historical text, this extraordinary account offers original insight into popular conceptions of domesticity, morality, gender, society, modernity, and the transformation of the genre as a propaganda tool under communism.