Beijing Shopping - Chinese Peasant Art

City Guide - Beijing - Shopping
About 70 percent of the Chinese population, or 800 million people, are peasants.

Chinese peasant paintings reflect the style and scenes of the peasants' lives in the vast countryside.

It originates from the thousand-year old traditions of embroidering, batik, paper cutting and wall painting. It has emerged only within the last thirty years with the help of trained artists. Many critics comment on its freshness, stating that it is strong, sincere and bold.

It often contains exaggerated modeling, distortion and a surrealistic style that can evoke a feeling of truthfulness and naïveté. The art possesses the simplicity of people who live away from a big city. Throughout China, there are more than forty so-called "Painting Villages." These villages specialize in various forms and styles of folk paintings.