Wuhan scroll celebrates Year of Snake

Well-known Hubei folk artist Jiang Xianxiao has spent a whole year completing a 20-meter long scroll painting. It features 128 snakes to celebrate the coming Year of the Snake.

It has become a New Year tradition for Hubei folk artist Jiang Xianxiao to create art pieces of Chinese zodiac animals. Since 2005, Jiang has made 8 other paintings, each one a 20-meter long scroll. He thought for a long time about how he wanted the snakes to look in his latest painting.

Jiang said, "The realistic way of painting snakes is not difficult. However, I didn't want to frighten viewers. Finally, I decided to bring elements of traditional folk art into my paintings."

The snake has an absurdly round head, with peony and plum flowers drawn along its body. Red and green colored folk art styling was used to achieve a strongly contrasting visual effect. As a result, the 128 snakes look lively but unthreatening.

Jiang said, "There are not many Chinese idioms about snakes that are positive. So it is not easy to paint a pleasant looking snake. I am probably the first one in China to paint the Chinese zodiac snake in such a manner. This is the ninth zodiac painting I have done since 2005, the Year of the Rooster. There are 3 more years to go for me to complete the whole collection of 12 zodiac animals."

Jiang's granddaughter added her own cartoon version of the zodiac snake on the long scroll. Unlike Jiang's snake, the baby snakes she drew are playing music, coiling up or doing exercises.

Despite their different imaginations of the snake, both artists wish to share their zodiac paintings with the public as a tribute to the coming Chinese New Year.