Faces from reality

Born in a village near Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, Xin dropped out of high school because his obsession with painting distracted him from his studies, resulting in poor grades. His only interest was painting, and he spent his school days sketching figures in the blank areas of his textbooks.

But because he hadn't received any formal training, Xin failed to gain admission to art school. He eked out a living by painting decorative patterns on the walls around kang (a traditional stove bed in northern China) for local villagers.

He later worked as a painter at refineries and a packaging designer at printing houses in Shanxi province, but he kept up his painting in his spare time.

In 1986, he was finally enrolled at a normal college in Jinzhong, Shanxi, where he received systematic disciplines of art.

After graduation, he taught at several normal colleges around Shanxi, while his paintings began to gain attention at provincial and national exhibitions.

As he spent more time traveling outside of Shanxi, and later relocated to Beijing, he encountered a wider population from various walks of life, such as his fellow artists, young college graduates and students who were better educated than his fellow villagers-but who all had to put up with the mounting pressures, fast pace and increasing costs of urban life.