Rural scenery

In the main cultural venue of Jiaxing city's Xiuzhou district, Zhejiang province, a few elderly women are using their imagination and some bright colors to paint the idyllic scenes of life in Jiangnan, or "south of the Yangtze River". They are members of a farmer-painter group known as the "Ten Sisters", formed in 2009. The group has 12 rural residents, the oldest of whom is 76 years old and the youngest 61.

"They all hail from Hexin village (in Jiaxing) and took painting lessons at the same time," says Zhu Qinhua, an instructor from the district's cultural venue. "Ten here is more a reference to 'perfection' rather than a specific number, hence the name."

In fact, the group didn't start out as painters. As dancing enthusiasts, the farmers went to the district's cultural venue to participate in activities. In 2009, they were asked whether they would like to learn painting.

"At first, we all thought we couldn't make it. I, for one, was illiterate,"Dong Aina, one of the members, recalls." But with the guidance and encouragement from our instructors, I grew more and more at ease with painting."