Farmers’ paintings provide a growing source of income for rural residents in NE China’s Jilin

Dongfeng county in northeast China’s Jilin Province is known as one of China’s three production bases of farmers’ paintings, with the other two being Jinshan district of Shanghai and Huyi district in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.

Photo shows a painting by a farmer named Lyu Yanchun which depicts the beautiful scenery of Dongfeng county, northeast China’s Jilin Province. (Photo provided by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Dongfeng County Committee)

In the 1970s, more than 10 farmers established a painting team in Honglangtou village in Hongshi township, Dongfeng county, opening a new chapter for farmers’ painting in Dongfeng. At that time, the farmers improved their skills mainly by imitating pictures used for publicity purposes, New Year’s paintings, and paintings displayed in newspapers.

A painter works on a part of a painting in Dongfeng county, northeast China's Jilin Province. (Photo provided by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Dongfeng County Committee)

In 1983, a painting entitled “Happy Life of Elderly People” by a local farmer named Zhang Yuyan won first prize in the first Chinese Farmer Painting Exhibition, garnering much attention from the country towards farmers’ paintings from Dongfeng.

In 1988, Dongfeng was approved by the then Ministry of Culture to become “the county of modern Chinese folk painting.” In 2009, the Dongfeng farmers’ painting craft was inscribed as a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage item in Jilin Province.

Children are in the middle of a training class on painting in Dongfeng county, northeast China's Jilin Province. (Photo provided by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Dongfeng County Committee)

Striving to keep abreast of the trend of the times, the Dongfeng farmers’ painting industry has embarked on a fast track of development, depicting the cultural characteristics of northeast China while learning other various methods of artistic expressions in presenting a prosperous society in a skillful manner.

By organizing free training classes and holding exhibitions on farmers’ paintings, Dongfeng county has endeavored to carry forward the craft, having also involved more farmers in the trade. Thanks to many years of such efforts, the number of farmer painters in Dongfeng has exceeded 52,000, including more than 400 backbone painters and more than 40 well-known painters.

Folk artists draw paintings on porcelain products at a workshop in Dongfeng county, northeast China’s Jilin Province. (Photo provided by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Dongfeng County Committee)

Dongfeng county has also turned the farmers’ paintings into products for sale, enabling the paintings to reach more customers while generating incomes for the rural painters.

A farmers’ painting industrial park, which incorporates the functions of producing paintings, holding painting exhibitions, and selling paintings, has been established in the locality, and a porcelain painting project has been launched on an e-commerce platform to boost the sales of the paintings. A credible source indicated that the annual sales of farmers’ paintings have surpassed 30 million yuan in Dongfeng.

Folk artists display paintings they created at a workshop in Dongfeng county, northeast China's Jilin Province. (Photo provided by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Dongfeng County Committee)