Once, Dafen’s galleries were piled up with replicas of Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” now the facades are dominated by original works. Last year, 40 percent of the 3.5- billion-yuan turnover of Dafen came from selling original works, statistics by the art association of Dafen have shown.

    Helen Deng

    PAINTER and factory chief Chen Wujing considered committing suicide in 2008 after his recently established art factory of 30 people was rocked by the financial crisis. “The market suddenly melted. I had to lay off all the workers, some of whom had been with me for years. All those years of work in Dafen were undone,” Chen recalled.

    Sitting in front of a large oil painting featuring Chairman Mao at the center of a red star, Chen, 28, exhibited his own work at the 2nd China (Shenzhen) Dafen International Oil Painting Fair, which lasted from Oct. 25-30.

    Chen is one of some 30,000 painters at Dafen, a village well-known for producing cheap replica oil paintings. In 2002 he came to Dafen with a relative, partly for money and partly to realize his dream of becoming an artist. He started from a painter-worker to a painter-cum-factory chief, and if the financial crisis had never happened, he would have continued his replica business.

    As overseas markets began to shrink and domestic inflation drove up rent along with painters’ wage demands, Chen, like many painters at Dafen, changed from replica production to original painting, “Poverty gives rise to the desire for change,” he said.

    Before 2008, more than 60 percent of paintings in Dafen were exported, some paintings would sell thousands of copies at a time. But now most of the paintings are sold on the domestic market, and there are fewer orders for replicas. That means a painter has to put more time into each artwork. Before 2008, a painter was paid 35 yuan (US$5.51) for painting one square meter. Now the price ranges between 80 and 100 yuan and rent has more than doubled.

    “The market is changing. So the painters have to change,” said Chen. He was followed by artist Tan Zizheng, who paints Chinese-style landscape with Western oil painting techniques: “Replicas don’t sell. You need originality in paintings.”

    Once, Dafen’s galleries were piled up with replicas of Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” now the facades are dominated by original works. Last year, 40 percent of the 3.5-billion-yuan turnover of Dafen came from selling original works, statistics by the art association of Dafen have shown. Of the 1,200 galleries in Dafen, there are now more than 200 artists who do original works, including more than 50 well-known ones. But the transition has not been easy.

    “Our standards have improved but our competitiveness has decreased,” said Tan. The prices of Dafen oil paintings are increasing, which in turn drives away potential buyers. And the village is losing painters to places like Yiwu City in Zhejiang Province, where rent is lower.

    At the China (Shenzhen) Dafen International Oil Painting Fair, the government tried to promote original paintings by giving them prominent booths. However, Chen and Tan saw few buyers. Most of the visitors were fellow-painters.

    “The fair is relatively new and not yet influential enough,” said Tan, fearing that he could not recover his 2,000-yuan booth fee. But Chen is more optimistic. “The fair is a good thing for the village. It shows that the government is making efforts to upgrade Dafen and promote the industry,” he said.

    China (Shenzhen) Dafen International Oil Painting Fair is part of the Dafen International Oil Painting Expo which also includes summits for paintings, creative culture, auctions for original paintings, and lectures on arts. Dafen has established a fine art institute to encourage original works, and entrepreneurs in Dafen have established a corporation, Dafen Oil Painting Industrial Co. Ltd., which is expected to become a sales platform for its own artworks. Longgang District Government is expanding the village, which is expected to help lower the rent. A new Dafen Village costing 1 billion yuan will be built, according to Hong Bilong, village head of Dafen. These changes are bringing hope to the painters.

    In the 10 years that Chen stayed at Dafen, he witnessed its growth from a shabby, dilapidated place to an attractive village. A newly opened Metro Station has cut the journey time from downtown to Dafen to 40 minutes, yet its business has barely improved, he said. “Fierce competition, hikes in rent, and a shift in focus from replicas to original works mean we have yet to create a good business environment,” said Chen.

    Conflicts between landlords and tenants climaxed two weeks ago when a landlord threw away the furniture and paintings of a dealer who refused to pay the hiked rent. The angry tenant organized a protest. Chen posted a piece on the incident on Dafen’s online forum, but had to delete it after his landlord told him to do so. The dispute remains unsolved despite the government pledging to get involved.

    During the hard times, many painters, including some friends and disciples of Chen, left Dafen, but Chen did not. He said: “I want to prove that painting can make money, and that Dafen has many talented people.”