{"id":361552,"date":"2025-05-30T01:14:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T17:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/?p=361552"},"modified":"2025-05-30T01:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T17:14:43","slug":"brushstrokes-of-reality-the-beauty-and-cruelty-of-dafen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/brushstrokes-of-reality-the-beauty-and-cruelty-of-dafen\/","title":{"rendered":"Les coups de pinceau de la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 : la beaut\u00e9 et la cruaut\u00e9 de Dafen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired by the documentary China\u2019s Van Goghs<\/em> (2015) by director Yu Haibo and the Nanfengchuang<\/em> article \u201cShenzhen Dafen: The Cruelty and Beauty of an Art Village\u201d (January 13, 2018), I was struck by the discovery that in a city often mocked as a \u2018cultural desert\u2019 like Shenzhen, there exists a place as seemingly out of sync as Dafen Village. I was deeply moved. On November 28, 2021, I invited a friend to join me on a midday trip, spending the afternoon exploring Dafen Village and seeking to understand its current reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"peinture<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before setting out, I did plenty of research. Most online reports about Dafen Village date back to before 2018, a time when China\u2019s Van Goghs<\/em> had garnered international attention and won numerous awards. Yu Haibo\u2019s photo series Village de peinture \u00e0 l'huile de Dafen<\/em> even won second prize at the 49th World Press Photo Contest. These awards, aside from their own prestige, placed this small urban village under the global spotlight, attracting waves of media coverage. After 2018, however, public attention waned. The few recent reports and videos mostly focus on changes in appearance, environmental improvements, and shifts in government policy toward Dafen. But I was after something more. This trip had three main purposes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. To visit Zhao Xiaoyong, the main character of China\u2019s Van Goghs<\/em>. I wasn\u2019t sure if I would find him, nor what I would say if I did. But the unknown held its own allure, and I wasn\u2019t anxious about it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. To observe how the environment of Dafen had changed \u2014 whether in terms of artist migration, tourist volume, infrastructure, or painting styles.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. To visit the Dafen Art Museum. It\u2019s clear that the Shenzhen government wants to reshape Dafen into a national hub of artistic and cultural production, and any place of such ambition needs a landmark building. The museum plays that role. From online images, its modern architecture seemed jarringly out of place \u2014 something I felt compelled to see in person, as if on a pilgrimage.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    To get to Dafen Village from Shenzhen University, one must take Metro Line 3 and disembark at Dafen Station. The trip takes a little over an hour, yet it didn\u2019t feel that long. On the final stretch, the train runs above ground \u2014 more like light rail \u2014 and through the windows, one can see a giant sign below: \u201cShenzhen Dafen Oil Painting Village.\u201d This marks the symbolic entrance. On either side of the tracks rise rows of densely packed high-rises \u2014 not quite the cyberpunk skyscrapers of Nanshan, but still oppressively tall and dense. The view perfectly matches the wide-angle shots seen throughout China\u2019s Van Goghs<\/em>. The only difference? In the film, the skies were bleak and overcast; when I visited, the sun was shining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"peinture<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    After exiting the station, we had to walk a little farther to reach the heart of the village. Although geographically close, the area leading into Dafen felt like a completely different world \u2014 wide, modern roads devoid of any trace of oil painting. It was only later, upon leaving, that I realized how stark this contrast truly was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once inside the village, oil paintings were everywhere \u2014 hanging from walls and corners, displayed at storefronts, even laid out directly on the ground. Van Gogh reproductions were the most common, followed by Monet. Nearly every shop carried Sunflowers<\/em>, Starry Night<\/em>, and Van Gogh\u2019s self-portraits. According to the reports I read \u2014 and based on my own understanding \u2014 why Van Gogh and Monet? For one, Dafen\u2019s early orders were almost exclusively for Van Gogh reproductions. These were easy to sell \u2014 most buyers were European, and for them, Van Gogh was like a Bible of oil painting. Unable to afford originals, they turned to replicas. Secondly, Van Gogh\u2019s works are easier to paint \u2014 and by \u201ceasier,\u201d I mean more manageable for the artists in Dafen. Abstract art is notoriously difficult to create, especially Monet\u2019s impressionist works, which demand a mastery of color that defies pure technique. But for painters copying from a photo, they\u2019re quite doable. Oil paint is also forgiving: a mistake can simply be painted over. For many Dafen artists, reproducing Van Gogh is a rite of passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That day, I spoke to a painter who was working on a piece inside one of the shops. He told me most artists here come from rural areas or construction jobs with no prior training. To learn, they usually apprentice under a master, starting with small tasks and gradually learning to paint. They typically begin with Van Gogh. Within a few months, they can paint independently \u2014 though not with great refinement. Mastery takes much longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One popular feature in Dafen today is oil painting workshops for tourists. It\u2019s also a vital source of income for many local artists, especially after the pandemic caused a sharp decline in overseas orders. One painter said, \u201cLuckily, more domestic customers have started appreciating oil paintings. Some people order them as home d\u00e9cor during renovations. But it\u2019s still far less business than a few years ago.\u201d The workshops are simple \u2014 a few easels and stools, ready-mixed paints, and a stack of sample artworks. Visitors pick a painting to copy, and the owner offers occasional guidance. The finished products are usually decent. Prices range from 50 to over 100 yuan. It\u2019s a unique Dafen experience, and one I personally regret missing due to time constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"peinture<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    My friend and I spent a long time watching the painters at work \u2014 smooth brushstrokes, occasional swipes with palette knives \u2014 movements repeated thousands of times with practiced ease. That\u2019s what moved me most. Painting here is part of daily life \u2014 like playing music, sipping tea, or sketching a scene. It stands in stark contrast to the hustle of Shenzhen\u2019s high-tech urbanity. But don\u2019t mistake it for some artistic utopia. Harsh reality lives here too. The attention brought by China\u2019s Van Goghs<\/em> didn\u2019t fundamentally change much. Many artists came here with dreams of making a living from painting, but most eventually gave up and returned to reality. Zhao Xiaoyong told me this himself (yes, I found him \u2014 more on that shortly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Earlier, I mentioned most artists in Dafen are self-taught migrants. But there\u2019s another group \u2014 academically trained artists. I saw several painters working in quiet corners, blending in completely with their surroundings. On inquiry, I learned some were art school graduates or even master\u2019s students. In my mind, these were the kind of people who gave lectures in well-lit galleries. Yet here they were \u2014 perhaps driven by necessity, or maybe seeking inspiration, or simply using Dafen as a creative retreat. Who knows? But their presence felt quietly bittersweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Beyond the visuals, one sensory detail stands out: the smell. The scent of oil paints and acrylics permeates everything. If you\u2019re used to seeing oil paintings in pristine galleries under spotlights, you\u2019d be shocked. Here, art is stripped of its lofty aura and brought uncomfortably close. Not in a romantic \u201cart meets life\u201d way, but in a jarring overlap of authenticity and artificiality. You can sense the fakeness in many of the works \u2014 even I, not a professional, could tell. Copies are still just copies. After seeing a hundred versions of Sunflowers<\/em>, my friend and I were tempted to call most of them \u201cpoor imitations.\u201d Still, I don\u2019t mean to say art must be detached from everyday life to have value. Quite the opposite: art\u2019s value comes from life. Van Gogh\u2019s Starry Night<\/em>, Sunflowers<\/em>, et Wheatfield with Crows<\/em> all move us because they distill the emotion and vitality of life itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The biggest surprise of the day was stumbling upon Zhao Xiaoyong\u2019s studio. It looked like the same one from the documentary, though now it had a fresher design. A China\u2019s Van Goghs<\/em> poster hung at the entrance. Alongside Van Gogh replicas were many of Zhao\u2019s own works. He was in the inner room, painting a Van Gogh self-portrait, with an unfinished cup of tea on the table and Debussy\u2019s Clair de Lune<\/em> softly playing from a speaker. I couldn\u2019t believe it was him \u2014 not until my friend pointed it out. I had assumed he\u2019d \u201cmade it big\u201d from the film and left this place behind. Nanfengchuang<\/em> reported that after six years of filming, Zhao rose to fame in 2017, and his paintings that once sold for a few hundred yuan now fetched as much as 12,000. But when I stepped into the room, he barely looked up before returning to his work. That\u2019s when I realized: Van Gogh doesn\u2019t just live in paint or on paper \u2014 he lives in the hearts of a few people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Zhao was happy to chat. I rambled on about my interpretation of Van Gogh, the documentary, and my impressions of Dafen. He listened quietly, sometimes nodding, occasionally responding, then calmly returning to his painting. His brush added layer by layer to the self-portrait. I looked around at his original works, full of Van Gogh\u2019s influence, and recalled that scene in the documentary \u2014 Zhao traveling all the way to the Netherlands, only to find his painting not in a gallery, but in a souvenir shop near the Van Gogh Museum. His eyes glistened with tears. So close to Van Gogh \u2014 yet so far. \u201cTo become Van Gogh, to become Van Gogh!\u201d I don\u2019t know if he still dreams of that. I didn\u2019t dare ask. But he did seem more at peace than in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As I was leaving, he shared more stories of Dafen and even added me on WeChat. He had recently been interviewed by the podcast Story FM<\/em> and sent me several episodes. That alone made the trip unforgettable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime and died in poverty. Everyone in Dafen paints Van Gogh, but no one wants to become him. Everyone carries a fire within them, but passersby only see the smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This ends my account \u2014 though the experience is far richer than what I could ever write. If you visit Dafen yourself, you\u2019ll find it far more vivid and alive than anything I could describe. I\u2019ll include links to the references at the end.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Inspired by the documentary China\u2019s Van Goghs (2015) by director Yu Haibo and the Nanfengchuang article \u201cShenzhen Dafen: The Cruelty and Beauty of an Art Village\u201d (January 13, 2018), I was struck by the discovery that in a city often mocked as a \u2018cultural desert\u2019 like Shenzhen, there exists a place as seemingly out of […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dafen-oil-painting-village"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dafennet.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}