Collecting artworks that have been created by celebrities seems to be a trendy thing these days in China. On December 22 last year, an abstract painting created by Ma Yun, the famous Chinese entrepreneur who founded the iconic Alibaba Group, was sold for 2.42 million yuan ($400,000) at the Laiwang, a social networking platform under taobao.com (which is part of the Alibaba Group), after 63 rounds of biddings and price offerings.

Attracting hundreds of thousands of onlookers on Laiwang that day, the auction adds Ma to the list of celebrities who have taken up art as a new career.

Actually, Ma is not the first whose painting has caused such a stir when being auctioned.

In September 2012, the oil painting An Idea, co-produced by famous film director Feng Xiaogang and popular artist Zeng Fanzhi, was auctioned at 17 million yuan, causing sensations in both the film and art communities.

Earlier examples are numerous. A calligraphy work that includes only four Chinese characters long fei feng wu (literally meaning beautiful penmanship like dragons flying and phoenixes dancing) by domestic renowned comedy actor Zhao Benshan, was sold for 920,000 yuan in 2010.

And in 2011, a painting by the once red-hot CCTV host Ni Ping was sold at 1.18 million yuan, with Ni only beginning to learn how to paint the year before. Ni later expressed that she was also shocked by the painting's high price.

Counter productivity

With its unexpected price, Ma's painting also encountered substantial disapproval when it was shown to the public. It was described by some netizens as looking like the pattern featured on that on a McFlurry (a popular ice cream product offered by McDonald's), or a huge @ sign.

And as for other eye-catching celebrities' artistic works, most of them were engulfed in criticism that their works were profiting from their popularity.

Cultural critic Zhiqing once commented on Zhao's calligraphy that it was far from promoting and extending the country's calligraphic art.

However, despite those sarcasms or straightforward blasts, celebrities are not held back in their way of pursuing crossover fame.

In May of last year, a calligraphy work that included seven Chinese characters meaning "fascinating Fenghuang Mountain entertainment park" by Japanese porn star Sora Aoi, was sold at the price of 600,000 yuan, breaking down to 75,000 yuan per character.

A little different from previous cases, this time the popular guess was that it was the organizer itself, for example, the entertainment park that was behind the purchase as a publicity stunt.

But it turned out to be totally counter-productive, failing to either attract people's interest for the park, or elevating Chinese people's image of Aoi. Just as one comment said, "600,000 yuan can be used in many ways for the promotion of a scenic spot, all better than a calligraphic show from a porn star, it's too pitiful to spend so much money on those clumsily written words," wrote commentator Liu Xiaosheng on 21ccom.net.