Town portrait

Painters have been attracted to set up shops here by preferential policies, such as low rent for commercial real estate. There are now a total of 48 studios on the street, most run in the form of family workshops. They employ 110 painters, many of whom graduated from the Tunchang Yanpuxuan Fine Arts School.

Zheng Hui, 33, came back to Tunchang and opened a studio on the oil painting street in 2015. "I feel less stressed working in my hometown, partly because of the local government's favorable financial support policies," she says.

Last year, 11 instructors from the oil painting committee of the Hainan Artists Association came to Tunchang's oil painting street to train more than 40 painters and primary and middle school art teachers in sketching. The technical education included teaching students to brighten up works through the application of colors and to select painting elements with a specific effect in mind.

Zheng participated in the event, sketching landscapes and figures under the guidance of the instructors.

"I feel that my creativity has been improved. I'm making art with Li and Miao ethnic cultural themes, as well as marine and tropical characteristics," she says. "I hope my paintings will have the opportunity to be featured in an exhibition."