W550 X H390mm, China

 A famous scene from the opera Madame White Snake.  The story was set at the West Lake in Sung dynasty, one day in the rain the young gentleman Xu Xian (left figure) saw two pretty girl at the pier and offered the umbrella to them leading to the romance of the story.  Earlier on, Xu Xian rescued a white snake, it was moved and fell in love with Xu.  The white snake transformed herself into Bai (white – right figure) Su Zhen and together with her friend Qing Qing (green – middle figure) appeared at the pier.  Under her magical spell, Xu fell in love with Bai.  As time goes by, many strange incident happened because of Bai and Qing.  Xu Xian was approached by monk Fa Hai who told him the truth about his wife being a serpent spirit and gave him a monk’s bowl.  As Xu Xian place the bowl over his wife’s head, Bai and Qing returned to their original selves.  Monk Fa Hai took the bowl with the two spirits and build a Lei Feng pagoda on top of them.

Click here to see other craft items featuring decoration on the story of Madame White Snake.

Come to see the actual print and many others at the
New Year Print Exhibition

MOUNTAIN FOLKCRAFT
CHINESE WOOD BLOCK PRINT COLLECTION