Inheriting the Essence of Longmen Farmer Painting in Festivals

Abstract

Longmen farmer painting is a modern folk painting art rooted in Longmen, Guangdong. With farmers as the main creation body, it reflects farmers' life scenes and traditional customs and festivals, embodying strong Lingnan characteristics and winning the honor of "Lingnan Cultural Miracle". However, with the fast advancement of China's urbanization and the rapid development of mobile Internet, China's modern life has undergone earth-shaking changes. With it, the development of Longmen farmer painting is facing huge challenges. In view of this problem, the School of Arts and Design of Huizhou University studies cultural vein of Longmen farmer paintings for a long time based on geographical advantages. During the research process, it was found that festivals as the time node for cultural heritage play an important role in the inheritance and development of Longmen farmer paintings. This paper examines the five festivals involved in Longmen farmer paintings, including Chinese Farmers Harvest Festival, February 2nd and Qixi Festival, as well as Longmen’s unique local festivals such as Scaffold Erecting Festival and Panwang Festival. It then investigates the festival-related traditions and manifestations of related customs in Longmen farmer painting. After investigation, this paper concludes that: using festivals as timeline for the spread of Longmen farmer painting will greatly promote the inheritance of farmer paintings. The manifestation of modern farmer paintings should advance with the times and capture the festival culture in new rural life.