Brightening walls, muralists spread joy

A flying ship, a cat with a tree on its head, an auspicious dragon. As vivid wall paintings pop up in rural parts of Chongqing municipality and Yunnan province, the two volunteer painters behind them, who bring love and enrich cultural life in the countryside, have gone viral.

"We just wanted to do something to decorate buildings to give them new life," said 26-year-old Liu Zhicheng, the muralist-in-chief.

Liu has been a professional wall painter for five years and has spent the last two years in Chongqing. His business partner and assistant, 22-year-old Xu Fengkai, joined him in April last year.

In June, the duo spent their holidays in Anju township in Chongqing's Tongliang district. They noticed some old, unsightly walls and came up with the idea of staying longer to transform them, free of charge.

With the consent of residents, they painted seven murals: four on the walls of a factory and three on residential walls. Each took between two and four days to complete. Liu remembers an inquisitive but helpful village boy who followed them everywhere and would try to find them blank walls for their next mural.

When he heard they were leaving, the boy waited the whole morning outside their apartment to give them a present, a stone that he treasured greatly.

"He seemed a bit sad, so I took a photo with him in front of a painting of Super Mario for him to remember his friends," Liu said. "We were very happy to see so many genuinely smiling faces."

He added that villagers sent them food as a token of thanks, and some came to see them off when they left.

Both men were born in small villages in Yunnan and have a deep love of the countryside. Though their business only just manages to break even, they both agreed on doing the paintings for free.

Encouraged by their reception, the pair traveled to Liu's hometown in Yongsheng county in Lijiang in September to paint more murals. "What's the use of them?" "It's illogical, ships can't fly in the sky!" The doubts voiced by some older villagers didn't deter the duo, who remain determined to beautify villages and add a touch of color to cultural life in the countryside.

Liu said he previously painted random images on city walls and abandoned factories, but he now prefers working in the countryside, where he makes use of more Chinese elements and paints on themes such as animal protection. He stresses that he is not a graffitist. "It can take time for people to accept our work," Liu said, adding that he'd once explained to a villager that he would give the dragon he was painting a pair of peaceful eyes.

With four satisfying murals finished so far, attitudes have gradually changed. "Some residents from neighboring villages have even knocked on my door and invited me to paint their walls," he said.

Liu has noticed that the mental outlook of villagers varies from area to area, and it might be the closed cultural environment in which some live that limits their inner world. As progress on rural vitalization continues across the country, with the aim of building a new, more beautiful and more satisfying socialist countryside, Liu is looking at a longer-term plan.

"It is difficult to upgrade peoples' inner lives quickly, so in addition, we'd like to attract attention and tourists to the villages," Liu said. "If that works, villagers might rethink their aesthetic appreciation."

Liu posts short videos of his murals on Douyin, the Chinese version of video-sharing app TikTok. So far, his account has over 293,000 followers, and his posts have received nearly 3 million likes.

Liu said that he and Xu have received invitations to paint murals from government departments, companies and individuals in Tianjin, Chongqing, the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou and Jiangsu, and the Xinjiang Uygur and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions.

"Liu is an enthusiastic young dream chaser I greatly empathize with," said Xiao Han, an official from the Tongliang Industrial Development Area in Chongqing.

Xiao has asked the pair to help transform the walls at some factories in the area.

"Development in the new era is not about filling one's stomach, but about enriching one's mind by strengthening humanism," Xiao said. "The murals help create a cultural and artistic atmosphere and provide a bit of cultural richness for employees."

Liu said he has turned down several high-paid offers and that the pair plans to continue with their part-entrepreneurship, part-public welfare approach to painting.