Shandong makes peony painting industry into big business

In the prefecture-level city of Heze in southwestern Shandong province, Juye county is trying to build itself into the country's largest trading market for meticulous peony paintings, with a target of comprehensive output value of 4 billion yuan ($563 million) in the calligraphy and painting industry by 2025.

At present, Juye produces over 1.2 million works of meticulous peony paintings (Gongbi peony painting) each year, with an annual output value exceeding 2 billion yuan, said Cheng Junwei, president of Juye County Calligraphy and Painting Academy.

In order to expand the influence of Juye Gongbi peony painting, the county has bolstered a farmer-painter cultivation project and created a group of professional town and village bases for such paintings, he said.

As of the end of May 2023, the government has invested a total of 78 million yuan, leveraging a social capital of 170 million yuan and building 49 rural grassroots painting studios with 11,000 painting practitioners, he said.

To cultivate more such artisans, the county has organized a total of 50 public welfare training sessions for Gongbi peony painting, 29 public welfare popularization classes and 15 basic improvement classes since 2023, training more than 2,000 artists, Cheng said.

Yu Xuexia, who has been engaged in meticulous peony painting for nearly 30 years, said for her, meticulous peony painting is not only a hobby, but also a stable source of income.

"In the past three decades, I have been learning and painting, seeing my skills constantly improving and prices of the paintings increasing," she said, adding that "Now I can paint five paintings a month, earning 5,000 to 6,000 yuan a month."

Huang Wenjing is a new student at the Gongbi peony painting training class at the academy.

She said: "As a new comer, I didn't have much confidence in myself at the beginning. From the teacher's hands-on guidance on drawing lines to now being able to slowly make adjustments and adding color, I feel very accomplished, and I can attempt at creating a six foot painting."

Cheng stressed that Juye county is following its goal of "shaping the painting brand, cultivating more talent, expanding the market and going global," to vigorously develop its meticulous peony painting industry.

Meanwhile, by closely following the development strategy of Heze, Juye is also taking expanding its meticulous peony painting industry as a driving force to empower its rural vitalization in the new era, Cheng said.

Please contact the writers at zhuangqiange@chinadaily.com.cn