With tree bark, pig's skin and ox's skin, Shen Yunxiang, a girl
in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, can make some
beautiful oil paintings.
These paintings, known as Chinese folk painting, are sold in the
mainland as well as in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Southeast Asia,
Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Every year, some 6,000
folk oil paintings are made and sold elsewhere, and the Wutong Town
in Lingui County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is therefore
named the hometown of Chinese folk oil paintings.
Recently, Shen attended the first China-Southeast Asia Cultural
Industry Forum held in Nanning, the regional capital, this month.
As soon as she returned, she told the reporter that she was glad to
have been invited to attend the forum, for it showed that her
painting was recognized by the public. At the cultural forum, her
paintings were widely praised by businessmen and artists from
Southeast Asia, and 500 orders were placed at the forum.
27-year-old Shen was born into a farmer family in Guilin. She
loved painting while yet a small child. In 1995, she went to join a
training course held by the Guangxi Ethnic Art School paying the
expenses by her own, to learn home decoration. She devoted much of
her spare time learning heavy oil painting.
In 1998 when she was practising her drawing skill in Yunnan, she
happened to see some artworks that depicted the life of the ethnic
minority people in Yunnan. She was deeply impressed by their unique
style and stayed there to learn the skill. Later, her sister also
came to learn the painting with her.
After learning for one year, the sisters went back to Wutong
Town. In 2000, they presented some of their works at the China
Agricultural Exhibition Hall. These works used ox's skin, pig's
skin, or tree bark to draw pictures depicting the life of the
ethnic minority people. The paintings were quickly sold out at the
exhibition.
The sisters soon became well-known in Guilin. Later, they
invited some of their friends and together they opened an art
workshop. His father now sells their works. With years' of work,
their workshop can produce hundreds of paintings every month.
(Chinanews.cn September 28, 2006)
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