MANY city residents will remember sanhua, a Chinese term covering comics, New Year paintings and posters, once important cultural symbols in Shanghai. Mentioning the word today, childhood memories will come flooding back for many people, the days when they hid behind the book stall after school to read comics, huge posters pasted on the walls and enjoyed paintings hung up during the festive season.

But sanhua is no longer a distant memory. A center for sanhua has been set up in Jiading to bring a new life to the old art form and a batch of new works has gone on display.

"During the Nanxiang Xiaolong Festival from September to October, cartoonists were invited to draw comics about the 100 years' history of xiaolong, the renowned Shanghai snack.

"When the comics were published, we were surprised to hear from citizens offering their private collections of old comics for the exhibition," said Ping Xiaoling, director of Nanxiang Culture and Sports Center.

The idea of building a center for sanhua was based on the strong emotional connection to the art form felt by many local residents.

Located in Tanyuan Garden, the base has a gallery and four creative workshops. The gallery will hold regular exhibitions displaying new and collected works. The center will organize researches and seek development opportunities. There are also plans to provide courses for those interested in sanhua. A wide range of sanhua items will be offered for sale.

The center has already invited contributions and many works are now on show in the gallery.

Meanwhile, the center has signed on 19 painters for future collaborations. It also signed a cooperation agreement with Nanxiang High School in an effort to train young talent.

 Posters used to feature hero figures with big round eyes, muscular arms and iron fists, which were far from reality.

Cartoonists Han Hesong and Bu Yuntai were invited to draw posters for the center. Their new poster series "Social Environment in Nanxiang" features ordinary people and is totally different in style.

The posters portray residents in various scenarios and explain the meaning of Chinese characters representing good qualities with each picture.

"Traditional Chinese paintings and Chinese New Year paintings are like brothers. They share many similarities in art form and aesthetics," said painter Wu Guoliang.

He combined elements from both art forms in his latest series of Chinese New Year paintings named "Vibrant by the River," showing the charm of the ancient town of Nanxiang.