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The 10,000 Masterpieces of Dafen Village (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Lawva and I'm Alice Irasari. Spotlight uses
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  a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
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  matter where in the world did they live. Jiao si how young dips his
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  brush into a patch of oil paint. Then he takes the brush and carefully
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  touches it to the surface of the painting. The painting is of a group
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  of yellow flowers. Normally, these sunflowers are a symbol of happy things,
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  but here the flowers hang down. It is as if they are as saddened
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  as the painter himself. Siow Young is not making his own work. Instead,
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  he is copying a painting. It is by the famous artist Vincent Van
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  Goh. Copying Van Go has become Siou Yong's life work. It is his
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  business. Together he and his family have made thousands of Van Go paintings.
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  They sell them to people all over the world. Siao Yong's work may seem
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  unusual, but he and his family live in Daifan oil painting village in China.
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  In Daifan, thousands of other painters copy work by famous artists as well.
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  They spend much of their lives with Western artists who are not famous in
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  China. Today's spotlight is on Daifan oil painting village. Dauphin Village is a
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  small part of the city of Shenzen, China. It is less than half
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  a kilometer wide, but it is home to over eight thousand painters. At
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  one point, it was responsible for sixty percent of the world's painting reproductions.
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  But Daifen was not always known for its art. For a long time,
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  Daifen was mostly farmland. The village itself did not have many people. It
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  was near Shensen, but there was not much there. Wang Jiung was a
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  businessman and painter from Hong Kong. In nineteen eighty nine, he visited Shenjen
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  and he visited Dafen. He recognized that Dauphin would be a good place to
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  set up his business, so he bought several buildings there and he employed several
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  people to make rep productions for him. These people were not trained artists,
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  many were farmers or laborers. Jung had to teach them how to paint.
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  As time went by, more people came to Dayphen looking for jobs. Jong's
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  business expanded, and other painters like him began to travel to Dayfan. They
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  were trying to follow his example. Joe Jung Ju is another painter from Daphen.
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  He came to the village in those early years. He spoke about his
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  experiences in the documentary China's Van Goes in nineteen ninety one. There were many
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  people painting in Dafen. I also wanted a job, so I came.
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  But we have never seen oil painting in our hometown. We also did not
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  know how to paint it. Every day we painted these things van God money,
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  but we did not know these painters. At the time. We had
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  a lot of orders we had to work on paintings. There were three lines
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  with seven people in a line. Everyone painted a part of the painting.
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  In those years, we finished nearly three hundred thousand copies. As time went
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  by, more and more people came to the village. It soon became known
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  for its oil paintings. Almost everyone living there had something to do with making
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  art, but painting copies was not an easy life. Jao Ziyo Jung also
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  came to Dafen early. He learned to paint and even started his own business.
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  But even and then he worked in difficult conditions. He would receive many
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  large orders from foreign businesses. They would use these paintings to put in hotels
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  or in homes. They would sell them in other countries at a higher price.
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  Ciao Jung and his family would work very long hours to finish the orders.
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  They lived, slept, and ate together in their art studio. They
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  even raised their children there. They worked through heat and sickness for very little
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  pay. Then in two thousand and eight, something changed. The world economy
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  went into recession. People all over the world lost jobs or had a hard
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  time finding them. They had less money to spend on things like paintings.
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  Before, most sales came from outside of China. Afterwards, these sales fell
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  off. This was a difficult time for many of Dafen's painters. Work was
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  sometimes hard to find. There was much less demand for Western copies. But
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  this was not always a bad thing. Many of these painters had been copying
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  other people's work for years. They had the skills to make their own work,
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  but making copies had brought them more money. Now they had time to
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  be creative, they could start making original pieces of art. Jiao Ciao Young
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  was one painter who began making his own work during this time. He began
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  by painting a version of his first studio. Then he painted portraits of people
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  in his hometown. Siow Young had copied Van Go for years, so his
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  paintings were in that style, but soon he began to develop his own images
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  and goals. Before as Yao Yung began painting his originals, he was unsure
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  if he would be successful. He did not know if anyone would buy his
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  work. He spoke in the documentary China's Van Goes about his hope and his
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  fears. My life is my art just like this, not now, but
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  maybe in fifty or one hundred years time, people will like our paintings.
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  Now people might say these people's paintings are not good. But if we wait
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  fifty to one hundred years, then there will be a generation that understands us.
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  They will like our paintings. But Sioo Yong did not need to wait
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  that long. For many years, people knew Daphan for its copies, but
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  soon people in China began to go there for original works too. They wanted
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  to buy work that was about their own country. Former farmers were now opening
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  their own galleries. They were not just painters now they were artists. For
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  some people, these changes may be surprising. Copying paintings does not seem creative,
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  but it may be the best way to learn. Eddie Kala is an
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  American artist who has worked with people in Daphin. For him, this development
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  makes a lot of sense. He spoke about Daphin on the podcast ninety nine
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  percent Invisible. We always start copying. That is how learning works. If
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  you learn to play an instrument, they teach you how to play existing songs.
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  They do not say, well, write an original song. And so
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  I think that is how all things grow. Today, there are still many
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  copy shops in Daphon. Reproductions of Western artists still hang in shops. Still
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  these paintings sell across the world, but now Daphen has many galleries of original
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  artists as well. It is still a place where people work long hours for
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  little pay, but Dayphon is also a place where people can grow and become
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  more than what they were. What do you think is copying a painting art?
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  If not? What makes art art? You can leave a comment on
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  our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
• 9:54
  on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The writer of this program was
• 10:01
  Dan Christman. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from
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  the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
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  and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called the ten Thousand Masterpieces of Daiphen
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  Village. You can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple
• 10:30
  device through our free official Spotlight English app. We hope you can join us
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  again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,