The Asia-Pacific Media Forum opened in Shenzhen on September 5, bringing together media leaders, journalists and communication experts from around the globe to discuss the future of journalism and digital storytelling. But long before smartphones and 24-hour news channels, how did ordinary people learn about current events, folk legends and social satire?
In the latest episode of the "APEC CP" series, we look at Guangdong's Foshan woodblock New Year prints and Russia's lubok prints—two popular cultural-heritage print traditions that share a medium and a social purpose. Long before the modern newsroom, artisans carved folklore, seasonal customs and social commentary onto wooden blocks, inked them and pressed them onto paper. Together, the two forms demonstrate that the impulse to record stories, spread information and share joy transcends both time and distance.
Foshan woodblock New Year prints
With a 700-year history, Foshan woodblock New Year prints are a renowned form of South China folk art celebrated for their rich colors and auspicious themes. They were historically exported across Southeast Asia, including to Vietnam and Cambodia, and were included in China's first national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006.
Far more than festive decorations for Chinese New Year, the prints served as the public media of their day. Local craftsmen carved blocks to record historical anecdotes, mark seasonal harvests and depict mythological figures such as protective door gods.
In an era before the advent of photography and modern mass printing, these colorful sheets carried stories and moral lessons into thousands of Cantonese households, blending art, storytelling and community news.
Russian lubok
Thousands of miles to the north, Russia had its own version: the lubok, a broadsheet that became one of the defining forms of popular media.
The origins of the lubok tradition stretch back to the 17th century, when woodcut printing techniques reached Russia through Western European sources. Combining bold, hand-colored woodcut illustrations with short descriptive text, lubok prints served both as home decoration and as early "graphic newspapers" for the lower and middle classes. Characters such as the red-nosed clown Farnos and the Cat of Kazan were household names, the viral memes of their time.
Through accessible humor and vivid imagery, luboks turned folk tales, current events and social satire into engaging visual narratives for a broad audience.
As Shenzhen welcomes delegates from across the 21 APEC member economies, this pairing of Chinese and Russian folk art shows that while the tools of communication have changed over the centuries — from ink rollers to AI and digital screens — the core of storytelling remains the same: connecting people through shared experience.
Author | Dong Han
Poster | Lai Meiya
Video | Dong Han
The video was generated by AI.
