Wooden type printing

The two wooden type printing workshops of more than 800 years' history found in Ruian City, one in Pingyang Town Dongyuan village and the other in Caocun Town Xiqian village, were the only two living examples of the technique in use, mainly for the printing of local family genealogy. The Genealogy of Family Wang in Taiyuan County recorded the long trip the family members took from their hometown in Henan Province, and during 1506 to 1521(Zhengde period in Ming Dynasty) from Fujian Province into Zhejiang with people's migration group, then finally settled in Ruian through Pingyang in 1736, the first year of Emperor Qianlong's rule in Qing Dynasty. To craft wooden type, best-quality Callery pear timbers are selected as raw materials, then they are weathered and dried up in natural environment in preparation, lastly Chinese characters of Song typeface were engraved onto the wooden tiles to form types which are then used throughout a series of procedures like type selecting and composing to finish the printing. The technique was enrolled in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritages in need of urgent safeguarding in 2010. 

Yueqing fine-line paper-cutting

The art was rife in Yueqing region already in Yuan Dynasty according to written documentation made thence, over 700 years from present, originally widely applied as ornaments for lamps on dragon-boats. It later prevailed among women who embroidered on headgears, footwears and bellybands based on the paper-cuts as frames. The hair-thin fine lines in the paper-cutting are merely 1 mm in width, total 22 lines can be cut to a 1 cm wide paper with less than 0.5 mm intervals. The recent period dating from the founding of PRC has witnessed unconventional contents being added to the traditional patterns, complementing a pattern set encompassing floras, birds and human figures. Certain presentational artworks, flowers and birds, the harmonious bond between soldiers and citizens, after class, weaving girl, etc. were exhibited both nationwide and abroad. The artwork of Zhang Houguang even won the first prize in the National Paper-cutting Competition in 1987. In 2007, Yueqing fine-line paper-cutting was listed in the first enrollment of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the list of representational works for World Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.