# Chinese Modern Woodcut Movement > The leftist print movement launched by Lu Xun's 1931 Shanghai woodcut workshop, which made the self-cut black-and-white woodcut China's art of national crisis and revolution. Young artists learned from Käthe Kollwitz, Frans Masereel and Soviet woodcuts to gouge close-up, diagonal images of workers, refugees and resistance for journals, books and travelling exhibitions; in Yan'an after 1942 they adopted New Year print outlines and colour for peasant audiences. - Period: 1931–1949 - Where: East Asia - Origin: Shanghai (Lu Xun's woodcut workshop, August 1931), then woodcut societies in Hangzhou and Guangzhou, the wartime rear areas and the Lu Xun Academy of Arts in Yan'an - Branch: Avant-garde - Also known as: New Woodcut Movement, Xinxing banhua yundong, Creative woodcut (chuangzuo banhua), Yan'an woodcut - Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/chinese-modern-woodcut/ ## How it works - Cut the block yourself and leave the chisel's slashes visible: hard black masses broken by white gouge strokes. - Show workers, refugees, soldiers and bound or shouting bodies close up, surging on diagonals toward the viewer. - Print in black ink on thin paper at book, journal and broadsheet scale, so prints are cheap to pull and easy to send on travelling exhibitions. - Keep words to a short hand-cut or brush-written title and let the image carry the argument. - For rural audiences, soften heavy shadows into clear outlines and add flat New Year print colour and folk subjects. ## Its design choices Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then. ### Layout & composition - [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (defining) - [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic) - [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic) - [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (occasional) ### Space & hierarchy - [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (defining) - [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic) - [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic) - [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (occasional) ### Typography - [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic) - [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (occasional) - [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (occasional) ### Colour - [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining) - [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (occasional) - [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (occasional) - [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (occasional) - [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (occasional) ### Form & shape - [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (characteristic) - [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (characteristic) - [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic) - [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic) ### Surface & texture - [Carved line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/) (defining) - [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic) ### Ornament - [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic) - [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (occasional) ### Imagery - [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining) ### Medium & production - [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (defining) - [Letterpress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/letterpress/) (occasional) ### Tone & intent - [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (defining) - [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic) - [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (characteristic) - [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional) Avoids: Gradients, Straight photography, Photomontage, Type as image, Eclectic mixing, Gloss & highlights, Luxurious & glamorous, Non-representational, Condensed display Palette: #141414, #efe7d4, #8c7b62, #b8312f, #e0b23a Typefaces: Hand-cut Chinese characters carved into the block, Brush-written kaishu titles on journal and book covers, Songti (Ming) letterpress type for journal text Known for: Lu Xun (organiser; Shanghai woodcut workshop taught by Uchiyama Kakichi, August 1931); Hu Yichuan, To the Front! (1932); Li Hua, Roar, China! (1935; Modern Prints, Guangzhou); Yan Han, The Five Heroes of Langya Mountain (16-panel woodcut sequence); Gu Yuan (Lu Xun Academy of Arts, Yan'an); All-China Association of Anti-Enemy Woodcut Artists (founded 1938); China in Black and White (John Day, 1945), 82 woodcuts with commentary by Pearl S. Buck ## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to - Grew out of: [Expressionist Woodcut Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/expressionist-graphics.md) (1905–1925) - Influenced by: [Nianhua & Chinese Folk Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nianhua.md) (c. 1100–present) - Influenced by: [Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/socialist-realism.md) (1932–1989) - Alike in its design choices: [Taller de Gráfica Popular](https://stylogeny.com/styles/taller-grafica-popular.md) (1937–1977), 72% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Oaxacan Protest Printmaking & Street Graphics (ASARO)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/oaxaca-protest-graphics.md) (2006–present), 68% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ukiyo-e.md) (1670–1900), 58% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Literatura de Cordel Woodcut](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cordel-woodcut.md) (1940–present), 56% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Argentine Adventure Historieta (Oesterheld–Breccia)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/argentine-historieta.md) (1948–1996), 55% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Indonesian Woodcut Activism (Taring Padi)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/taring-padi-woodcut.md) (1998–present), 55% alike ## Real works - [Sanitation Worker](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Xia_Peng.jpg): Xia Peng (夏朋), 1933, National Art Museum of China, Beijing (image via Wikimedia Commons) - [Going Against the Current](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luo_Qingzhen.jpg): Luo Qingzhen (罗清桢), 1935, National Art Museum of China, Beijing (image via Wikimedia Commons) - [The Little Boat](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:He_Baitao.jpg): He Baitao (何白涛), 1935, National Art Museum of China, Beijing (image via Wikimedia Commons) - [Production in the Eighth Road Army](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/892926): Gu Yuan (古元), 1930s and 1940s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2022.396) ## Sources - Xiaobing Tang, Origins of the Chinese Avant-Garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement (University of California Press, 2008) - Sixth Tone, 'Wartime Woodcuts: The Art That Helped China Fight Japan' (https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1017568) - Smarthistory, 'Hu Yichuan, To the Front!' (https://smarthistory.org/hu-yichuan-to-the-front) --- From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Chinese Modern Woodcut Movement”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/chinese-modern-woodcut/