Written by Intern Reporter Din yi min
photographed by Chen Xinmin

Feng jing, a township within the Jin shan county of Shanghai, is the birthplace of Jin shan rural painting. In 1963, inspired by the traditional folk plastic arts of China, the farmers from Victory production brigade[2] of Feng wei Commune in Jin shan, Shanghai, ingeniously developed a form of painting, which encompassed printing and dyeing, embroidery, wood carving and mural painting on kitchen ranges. Their paintings presented a vivid picture about the communal lifestyles and working scenes of the villages south of the Yangtze River. It is probably the first rural painting in China of this type. Nourished with the wisdom of hundreds of rural painters and perfected with repeated artistic practice, the unique style of Jin shan rural painting fully materialized in 1977 as a result of ceaseless efforts in its exploration and development. Then this art form began to emerge in art circles and so far has enjoyed sound appreciation by experts from home and abroad and high popularity among the people. In 1988, Jin shan county was named“County of Chinese Folk painting”by State Ministry of Culture.

With the rural scenery in the south of the Yangtze River as the backdrop, Jin shan rural painting aims at eulogizing life. Centered upon the themes of beauty and modernity and integrating various techniques of expression from all kinds of folk arts, it draws upon the traditional folk arts and makes use of romantic imagination and bold artistic exaggerations. As a result, it has developed its own artistic features, which include originality of themes, naturalness of images, richness of composition and lively brightness of colors. And it has given birth to a new school of modern painting with clear national characteristics.

Many works of Jin shan rural painting are based upon real life. For example, the celebration of the lunar new year, the wedding ceremony, bee-keeping, the birth of calves, the fish pond, the chicken farm, flocks of ducks and so on. In order to express their desire for and pursuit of beauty, painters put less emphasis upon the exactness of images as well as the meticulous and mechanical copying of objects. Rather they paint with imagination, enjoying full freedom as to what to paint and how.

The painters of Jin shan rural painting all come from rural families. Women account for the majority of them, among which are mothers and daughters, sisters, sisters-in-law, husbands and wives. Quite a few of them have been engaged in the creation of rural paintings for several generations. Although they have never received any professional training, they are all familiar with the rural life and equipped with basic modern aesthetic ideas and painting techniques. They are rooted in the national and folk arts and inherit the techniques of expression from a variety of popular traditional fine arts such as paper cutting, embroidery, New Year painting, sculpture and so on. With its natural and simple planning, lively bright colors and exaggerated composition, their paintings enjoy a unique position in China’s modern folk painting.

The unique artistic style of Jin shan rural painting can be reflected in many aspects. For example, all three-dimensional figures are rendered into a single plane in the painting. In drawing the rooster, the full profile is always to be painted because it offers a best view of a whole rooster. As for the cup and jar, their brims are always painted as a nearly full circle and their bottoms are represented through drawing a single line. They believe that exaggerated and twisted figures can also give an objective representation of things and are realistic too. To illustrate, in their painting“the Cowherd and the Girl Weaver”[3] the star-crossed couple have no eyeballs because, according to the painters, they are so overcome with emotions at their yearly meeting that their eyes are brimful with tears, which make their eyes unseen. As far as the choice of colors is concerned, they are free from any theories of painting and match colors to traditional understandings and emotions, through which their own emotions are expressed. To this end, they have cultivated a painting style which attaches less importance to the real colors of the painted objects and emphasizes the role of the painter’s emotions. That is, they can use various kinds of colors in various manners so as to make their paintings as beautiful as possible. Sometimes rich and heavy colors are adopted; sometimes the colors are simple and elegant. This style turns Jin shan rural painting into a bright and colorful school of China’s rural paintings.

With the transformation of the economic system, timely efforts have been made to broaden the horizon for Jin shan rural painting. And an on-line trading network has been set up. Nowadays, with a click of the mouse, a piece of Jin shan rural painting can be readily purchased around the world. Up till now, Jin shan rural paintings have been exhibited and engaged in exchanges in more than 20 countries and regions like Europe, America, Asia, Australia and so on. Visitors would marvel, saying“There should be such a plain and unadorned folk art in such a modern metropolis!”In the previous competitions and exhibitions, more than 120 works of Jin shan rural painting have been presented with national awards, and more than 60 presented with municipal awards. Many works have been collected by the national art gallery and the art galleries abroad. Meticulous in representation, brimful with emotions and highly decorative, Jin shan rural painting is enjoying increasing popularity in painting circles and has become an important part of Chinese folk art.

Its overseas popularity has transformed Jin shan rural painting into an excellent“folk ambassador”, which has made a good gift during Shanghai’s foreign exchanges in recent years. Its fame has drawn the wives of the various countries’consuls in Shanghai and countless overseas tourists, who view it as“a lively and powerfully dynamic form of art.”Some of them have even wanted to be coached in this art. Its rising popularity far and wide has engendered a large number of collectors, which, in turn, has brought about very good economic benefits. So far, more than 56,000 works have been purchased. From the painting itself have continually derived a wide variety of products.

Jin shan rural painting is an artistic work imbued with strong local customs. Produced with the farmers’unique artistic expressions, it reflects working people’s simple wishes and hopes for a happy life and presents a clear picture of the communal life and local ambience. And there can be always found in every piece of Jin shan rural painting a vivid folk tale.

[1] Jin shan is the name of a county in Shanghai.

[2] The former Victory production brigade is today’s Zhong hong Village in the township of Feng jing.

[3]“The Cowherd and the Weaver”are two figures in an ancient Chinese fairy tale of love. Today they usually refer to husband and wife who live far apart.