The Yangjiabu Wood-plate New Year Painting of Weifang Municipality, Shandong Province is one of the three major wood-plate New Year paintings in China. It got established in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) and flourished in Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799 A.D.) and Emperor Jiaqing (1760-1820 A.D.) period in the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912 A.D.). Till now, it has a history of more than 600 years old.

The Yangjiabu Wood-plate New Year Painting is basically done by overprinting based on the technique of chromatography. Generally, it can be divided into four processes: drawing creation, drawing board engraving, wood-plate overprinting, and baking and final finishing touch of the rouge. First, it is the creation of the drawing. The creation requires that "painting is not serious or restricted, good-looking being the criteria; there should be stories and scenes in the painting, making people never tired of looking at it." The figures in the New Year's Paintings demand that "the New Year's Paintings will be nice looking only when the figures are with big heads and small bodies; the figures should be with clear eyes, brows, and handsome faces." The second is to carve the wood board. The pear wood that has been soaked and air-dried thoroughly will be bonded together according to the required size by a carpenter to form a base plate of different sizes, and then flattened to be ready for use. This is called seam-connection. Then is the wood engraving. A painting brush is used to sketch the lines of the drawing. Glue paste is used to stick the drawing upside down on the wood-plate. The engraving is performed by "upright and reverse ways of carving, and internal stressing cutting method." The third is the wood-plate overprint, i.e., printing the picture based on the technique of chromatography. The number of colors used in a New Year's Painting decides how many woodblock plates are needed and printed respectively with different pigments. The fourth is the baking and making the final finishing touch of the rouge. By cutting one third of the front end of a writing-brush made of goat's hair, touching the rosy pigment, and mixing with the suitable amount of water, the painter rotates the bush close to the inside part of the cheeks of the figure, and an appropriate effect of the final touch of rouge can be achieved.

Yangjiabu Wood-plate New Year Paintings are divided according to the themes into: praying for good fortune, welcoming the auspiciousness, avoiding the evil spirits, and protecting safety and peace; happiness, joy, auspiciousness and satisfaction; folk life, local customs, production, and labor; novels, dramas, myths and legends; landscape, flowers, lucky birds and auspicious beasts; current affairs, humor, recreation, and entertainment. According to the posted positions, they are divided into various categories such as The God of Door paintings, paintings on the wall over the Kang (a heatable brick bed in North China), curtain paintings, paintings hanging in the central hall, screen paintings and etc.. Yangjiabu New Year Paintings, through the techniques of implied meanings, symbols, and homophony, and the method of integrating poems with drawings, not only meet the needs of people's New Year wish for praying for good luck, chasing away the evil, welcoming good fortune, and paying respect and sacrifice to the Gods and ancestors, but also have great artistic and aesthetic value, which is in harmony with the customs and folklore of the New Year.