From Tradition to Modernity: Digital Expressions in the Preservation and Inheritance of New Year Paintings

Abstract

The China New Year Paintings are folk painting that evolved from farming culture. It once fell into a cultural depression and nearly died out. With the joint efforts of the government, artists and researchers, the art of it has been preserved and inheritance. In order to verify whether the digitization of New Year Paintings can solve the  low social awareness and confusing cultural dissemination problems, this paper reviews the literature of scholars, introduces the co-occurrence matrix and comparative learning framework, using Co-occurrence Matrix Analysis and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) for similarity analysis, compares the attempts made by artists through digitization and identify the digital representation and outcomes of the New Year Paintings by examining the frequency and similarity of keyword occurrences. This paper compares and discusses the attempts made by artists through digitalization by reviewing the literature of scholars, introducing the co-occurrence matrix and comparative learning framework, and conducting similarity analysis. The results of this study show that New Year Paintings can be reasonably disseminated and accepted, thereby generating more diverse interpretations and applications. This study has sorted out the digital expressions of New Year paintings, broadened the research horizon, and provided ideas for subsequent conservation research.