Zeng Renzhen creates a series of paintings which center around a diminutive character who likes to go on adventures, meet new people, take care of chores, and generally enjoy an enviably carefree life. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Despite his growing obsession, he decided to return to Beijing for fear of, in his own words, "doting on" classical Chinese gardens to such an extent that he would be unable to see the broader picture.

He then founded his studio, Huanyuan ("Garden of Fantasies"), which is also the name of his first series of paintings. He believes that Chinese gardens, with their rockeries and flower beds, are intended to be miniature versions of natural landscapes, so he decided to set down these miniature gardens on paper, and in the process create his own garden of fantasies.

Within the garden, the tiny person dressed in white emerged, free and unfettered, in a state upheld by Taoist philosophy.

"He is like a human spirit. He can travel freely in the vast world and its myriad entities. He represents the traditional Chinese ideal to set free one's mind in nature, without any physical or mental restrictions," Zeng says.

Initially, the tiny person traveled from one garden to another, illustrated with great delicacy and in great detail. Later on, he found his special someone, a tiny woman wearing a red dress.