[Video] China ’s ‘number one oil painting village’ struggles to survive
Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Daryl Lim visits Dafen in Shenzhen, where over 1,000 art studios are packed in an urban village measuring less than half a square kilometre in size. But with the Chinese economy in its current shape, demand for oil paintings — whether replicas or original works — is dwindling, and artists are finding it hard to survive.
(Photos: Daryl Lim/SPH Media)
In Ouyang Feng’s studio, which is less than ten square metres in size, a one-metre-tall realist painting of a cabbage takes centre stage. It is vibrant and lifelike, with the texture of the leaves and the play of light and shadow rendered intricately and realistically, making it seem like the actual vegetable is right before you.
With over 40 years of painting experience, Ouyang told Lianhe Zaobao that the Chinese characters for “cabbage” (白菜, bai cai) is a homophone for “hundred fortunes” (百财), symbolising the gathering of wealth from all directions. Compared with typical cabbage figurines, a cabbage oil painting evokes a sense of nobility and luxury, making it highly sought after by wealthy businessmen.
He said, “The prices of my paintings range from several thousand to tens of thousands of RMB. I set the prices based on the individual buyer — their social status and background naturally influence the price. It’s all a matter of fate.”
Ouyang’s studio is located in Shenzhen’s Dafen Oil Painting Village. In this small urban village covering just 0.4 square kilometres, there are 1,200 studios like Ouyang’s, earning it the reputation of China’s “number one oil painting village”.
Dafen’s situation seems to reflect nearly every major international crisis.
Dafen is world renowned for its astonishing output of replica oil paintings. Based on statistics, in its heyday, three out of five oil paintings sold worldwide were made in the village.
Statistics show that the output value of oil paintings in Dafen reached 430 million RMB (US$60.4 million) in 2007, more than four times that of 2003. However, due to the 2008 financial crisis, overseas demand for replicas fell sharply, leading to a significant drop in output value, which almost returned to the levels seen four years prior.
Many artists then turned to the Chinese market, which led to a rapid rebound in the industry, with the output value of oil paintings reaching a peak of 4.55 billion RMB in 2018.
Falling demand
Yet after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the output value began to decline, falling below four billion RMB to 3.8 billion RMB in 2023, even after restrictions eased. Dafen’s situation seems to reflect nearly every major international crisis.
Ouyang lamented that aside from external factors, China’s sluggish property market has been the most direct factor impacting the oil painting industry in the past two years. He said that the number of people “fated” to buy his paintings has dwindled, decreasing from dozens of paintings per month in the past to just single digits now.
He said, “Oil paintings are a form of decoration, not a rigid demand. If people are not buying or upgrading their homes, they have no demand for paintings. Everybody is unwilling to spend now — who would even think about hanging an oil painting of a cabbage on their wall to attract wealth?”
Walking into Dafen today, practitioners are no longer calling out to customers to buy their paintings but instead inviting them to experience creating an oil painting themselves.
Ouyang’s experience reflects the challenges facing Dafen Oil Painting Village. Nearly 8,000 oil painting practitioners like him are gathered here; amid sluggish sales, many are forced to seek new ways to make a living while pursuing their artistic dreams.
Changing strategy
Walking into Dafen today, practitioners are no longer calling out to customers to buy their paintings but instead inviting them to experience creating an oil painting themselves. In the streets and alleys of Dafen, chairs and easels are seen everywhere, leading the unknowing tourist to mistake this as the site of a large-scale painting event.
Artists are coming up with all sorts of gimmicks to attract tourists to create their own oil paintings. Some advertise “air-conditioned rooms” to entice visitors to create art in Shenzhen’s sweltering heat, while others display popular oil paintings, such as the viral Black Myth: Wukong, to attract tourists to replicate these trendy pieces.
Based on the size of their canvas, tourists can create their own artwork for 20 to 50 RMB under the guidance of an artist. They can choose their own painting subjects, and all required materials are provided by the artists.
Huang Fei, who has been running a studio in Dafen for over two decades, said in an interview that the oil painting workshops are a business model that only emerged in the past two years. He estimates that this has become the side business of 70% of the artists in Dafen.
“We are all forced by circumstances,” he said. Huang, who is involved in designing and customising paintings for homes, offices, and hotels, lamented that the oil painting business has dropped by over 80% in the past two years.
He said, “If business is good, who would be willing to conduct oil painting workshops? This is not a lucrative business, it is just a way to pass time.”
Alternative channels for sales
Apart from oil painting experiences, many artists have also turned to selling products outside of paintings, including ceramics, calligraphy, handmade ornaments, lacquer fans and other artistic products. Some have even started livestreaming directly from their studios to sell jewellery.
Some businesses are capitalising on the trend of internet-driven traffic, using celebrity IP to transform studio spaces into “celebrity experience halls”. There, they display celebrity portrait paintings, album cover decorations, and trendy toys, attracting many young tourists who pay to visit and take photos for keepsake.
Today, almost all the paintings hanging on the walls of Zhao Xiaoyong’s studio are his original works, covering themes such as his experiences in painting, his connection with Van Gogh, and the social landscape of Dafen and Shenzhen.
China’s Van Gogh
Dafen truly entered the international spotlight through the documentary China’s Van Goghs. The film, which depicted how painters in Dafen work on assembly line-like processes to replicate famous paintings, premiered at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam in 2016 and garnered widespread global attention.
The documentary features Zhao Xiaoyong, who has replicated over 100,000 Van Gogh masterpieces. In the film, when a foreigner asked whether “China’s Van Gogh” has any original works of his own, Zhao was rendered speechless. This moment of silence prompted him to reflect on the art of replication, strengthening his resolve to start creating original works.
Today, almost all the paintings hanging on the walls of Zhao Xiaoyong’s studio are his original works, covering themes such as his experiences in painting, his connection with Van Gogh, and the social landscape of Dafen and Shenzhen.
However, reality is often less than ideal. In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Zhao pointed out that although more people have come to appreciate his original oil paintings in recent years, the market demand for such works has not caught up, and replication still accounts for half of his paintings.
However, he pointed out that while he used to replicate famous paintings purely to earn a living, now it also serves to support his original endeavours.
Zhao said: “Creating original oil paintings takes a long time, and selling them takes even longer. You need sufficient financial support. Without enough financial backing, it’s easy to fall into the trap of worrying about making a living, leaving no room to focus on creating.”
No room for original works?
On the Chinese original art market, Ouyang pessimistically opined that there is still a long way to go for the Chinese original oil painting market to rise.
... original artists need an open environment to freely express their thoughts, emotions, and viewpoints. However, the relatively constrained public discourse space in China places constraints on the diversity and depth of artistic works... — Ouyang Feng, Dafen artist
He noted that original artists need an open environment to freely express their thoughts, emotions, and viewpoints. However, the relatively constrained public discourse space in China places constraints on the diversity and depth of artistic works, curbing the demand and level of appreciation for original oil paintings in China.
On this point, however, Zhao disagrees. He felt that China is still a country of traditions, and such a change would require time. In the past, people pursued basic needs, but in the new era, the pursuit of spiritual fulfilment is gradually emerging.
He added that there are many areas to explore in artistic creation, and that there is no need to blindly imitate foreign painting expression styles. Instead, a uniquely Chinese artistic style can gradually be developed.
Zhao said that “Dafen and its painters are undergoing a transformation from quantitative to qualitative change, from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China’. This development trend is already evident in many works, and an increase in demand (for original oil paintings) is just a matter of time.”
This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “中国“油画第一村”画作滞销逆境求存”.
