Note: This is a painting produced in the last fifty years by an artist who is presumably still alive. I do not have copyright in any way over this artist’s work. I’m reproducing it here because (a) these images are of ethnographic interest, (b) I’d hope that shining more light on contemporary mural and scroll painters will ultimately be good for their trade, and (c) frankly, these people seem unlikely to sue me. To that last point: It’s possible to commission artwork from contemporary village painters. If you’re interested, email me and I’d be happy to give you the contact information of several painters we met.
Structure Type: Kang-liners 炕圍子 in village houses. A kang is the heated clay platform set in each room of a north-Chinese house – during the day this platform is seating area, during the night, futons are rolled out on it and it becomes a bed. In traditional houses, small murals (“kang-liners”) are often done on square panels set around the walls.
Location: The old mountain village was abandoned and moved down onto the plain for poverty alleviation at some point in the early 2000s, hence I had free reign to wander through the abandoned houses and photograph inside.
Period: Several of the paintings are dated to the 1980s or ’90s.
Artist: Unknown, work in various hands.
Mural Contents: The murals show opera performers, famous beauty-spots, scenes of prosperous industrial development, auspicious or patriotic symbols, and geometric designs. The geometric designs, the tradition of opera depiction, and the playful, almost science-fictive merging of “modern” development and traditional scenes like the Summer Palace 頤和園 seem to come out of the broad tradition of 19th and early 20th century Chinese folk painting.
Other Notes: These were among the first murals I ever tried to document – I took these photos with a tiny point-and-shoot as I passed through the village on foot in autumn 2013. Thus the photos are terrible, both in terms of lighting, image quality, comprehensiveness, etc. I always meant to return here afterwards to re-take the photos, but one thing and another I never got around to it. Thus I’ve put them up here as-is, since I think these genres of domestic murals from the early Reform-and-Opening era are fascinating, and outside of these abandoned villages it’s difficult to see such images.
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