“When I was a boy, there was nothing more to do than have a treat to celebrate holidays. It was only for the spring festival that one would require to decorate for some atmosphere. There were quite a few formalities concerning celebrating the spring festival. To summon the God of Fortune, for example, one shall set off some firecrackers and then ignite the old picture of the God of Fortune before sticking the new one on the wall. Only then will the GOF find his place in your house and bless you with good fortune in the coming year.

Although not many households had rich decorations in the old days, even the poorest family would find themselves a piece of a New Year picture when the days approached. With the improvement of general conditions, the New Year pictures are getting fancier and fancier.

After moving to the countryside, I became nostalgic and started making New Year pictures myself. I enjoy drawing animals, so it's natural for me to draw NYPs with the Chinese Zodiac animals, to which I assign the role of the GOF each year. I make the NYPs with animal GOF in the style of Jiama woodcut prints to give them a classic look. I've made six animal GOFs since the last Year of the Rooster. And the coming year is of the Rabbit; I just made a rabbit GOF.

This time the treasure of the GOF is Chinese cabbage（kinakaal）. That's rabbits' favourite snack, and the homophonic pun in Chinese is "Hundreds of Wealth". The Rabbit is sharing its wealth with us. “ - Bai Guan Chinese Comic Artist

Happy new year!