I think the message trying to be conveyed was that the importance is that the picture conveys a narrative in the sense of “the hand of the image crafter should be seen” which means they are not worried that the image is a convincing fake, but that it illustrates the idea conceptually.
I’m not sure why woodcuts, except perhaps the fact to say maybe they’d rather have illustrators who showed artistic talent? Woodcuts are aesthetically pleasing in a way photoshop mock-ups are not.
I’m not sure the Chinese would like them particularly, but they might rather have full illustrations (rather like the animated news).
I’m not really sure I believe, though, that illustrators are any more expensive than photoshop hacks. That may be wrong, however, considering there’s a lot of demand for animators and illustrators.
