A modern woodblock print on Dai ethnic group in Yunnan. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A key exhibition displaying traditional Chinese printing works from non-Han ethnic groups opened in China Printing Museum in Beijing on Aug 11, unveiling a lesser-known part of Chinese printing history.

At Special Exhibition of Chinese Ethnic Print Art, which was co-organized by China Printing Museum and the Chinese National Museum of Ethnology, 125 works from both ancient and modern time are presented to provide a panorama of print art of different ethnic groups in Yunnan, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, among other provincial-level administrative regions in China.

The exhibits include ancient woodblock print on astronomy, religion, medicine, and so on ranging from Yuan (1271-1368) to Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, together with famed artists' works from recent history on figures, landscapes, ethnic cultures. Some displayed copperplate etchings were created in the late Qing Dynasty by Europeans during their explorations in those regions as anthropological references.