Pictorial tribute to dunhuang pioneer

Copies of Chang Shana's works are now on show at her solo exhibition, Everlasting Beauty of Dunhuang, at Beijing's National Art Museum of China. Lin Qi reports.

Chang Shana made her debut as a painter in 1945, at age 14, when she held a joint exhibition with her father, Chang Shuhong (1904-94), hailed as the "patron saint of Dunhuang", in Lanzhou, in northwestern Gansu province.

They were showcasing dozens of colorful ink-on-paper copies of the murals in the Mogao Grottoes. The exhibition caused a sensation leading to more attention being paid to the protection of the Dunhuang cave art.