Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    DECADES of experience in painting animals since his childhood has built strong love in him for animals, and that love turned him into a guardian of animals. He has been a volunteer dedicated to animal and environmental protection for more than 20 years.

    49-year-old Jia Zizheng from Heilongjiang Province said his fate took a sharp turn after he witnessed bloody scenes of wild animals being killed 20 years ago, and he started working for their protection.

    Animal lover

    Jia’s fondness for animals originated from life in his hometown in Northeast China where flocks of migrant birds and wild animals took rest at its vast wetland and swamps. He said he was often attracted to the flying birds and would pick up a tree stick to draw them on the ground. The more he painted, the stronger his love for animals grew.

    He taught himself to paint animals, and when he was 18 he created a unique animal painting — using small animals to shape big animals — adding more artistic techniques to the painting and illustrating the whole biological chain.

    Another of his works of art, “Ten thousand beasts,” painted in 1994, used in-laid animals to depict the fight between animals. It has won extensive acclaim and was listed as a record-breaking painting in 1997 by China Records Headquarters in Shanghai.

    He could have had a happy and peaceful life with a good job in a local mining bureau, if he was not harrowed by illegal animal hunters and animal trade.

    Ill-fated animals

    His life was changed by what had happened to animals in his presence.

    One of those wrenching incidents happened on a summer day in 1995 when Jia was sketching in the open wilderness. “I was distracted by three gunshots, and then a white swan flopped onto the ground and died. Another swan made a nosedive beside the dead swan and sent a chilling whine. Its cry attracted a flock of swans, all staying to grieve their companion’s death for a day — the scene left a shocking memory in my mind and I will never forget the heartbreaking sound,” Jia said.

    A trapped bear being killed in a cruel way and birds being poisoned and packed in bags — these tragic scenes of animals being tortured to death or killed continued to haunt him.

    He felt himself unable to keep silent and knew it was his fate to do something for the animals.

    He then resigned from his job despite strong objection from relatives and friends — his wife even divorced him — and threw himself into wild animal protection.

    Action on the way

    To dissuade people from eating wild animals, in 2005 he started a million-km road trip alone on a motorcycle, starting from his hometown. In two years, he crossed 14 provinces and held exhibitions along the way on streets and in schools to promote animal protection.

    In September 2006, he arrived in Shenzhen, the last station of his ride. He decided to stay in the city to continue raising awareness in Guangdong Province where people have the tradition of eating wild animals.

    For the following two years, he rode his motorcycle on Shenzhen’s streets and to residence communities to promote animal protection. He had won wide support and came to know many people in Shenzhen who embrace the same ideal.

    Later he initiated a “Maimiao Environmental Protection” campaign with the help of charity entrepreneurs. The first charity program was one-hundred-speeches on environmental protection by painters. At a time when garbage sorting was given little attention by the public, Jia often went to shopping centers and residence communities to give lectures with local cartoonist Xu Jingru.

    He organized numerous charity painting exhibitions on different topics, such as saving polar bears and protecting the biological balance, and held painting competitions and animal protection knowledge quizzes, all for the purpose of raising citizen’s awareness for protecting nature and wild animals.

    He has been offering free training at the science museum of Yuanboyuan Park in Futian District, where he cultivates children’s love for animals through teaching them to paint.

    Dreaming to build

    a museum

    In 2011, Jia registered as an environmental protection volunteer.

    He had thought of building a monument for wild animal protection to raise people’s love of nature, but when the plan to build the monument miscarried the dream grew stronger like a burgeoning seed in his mind.

    With some friends’ help, he found a scrapped water cave in Chiwan, Shekou, Nanshan District, and planned to build an environmental protection museum there.

    “It’s like God wanted me to find this cave,” Jia said. Recurring water pollution incidents in recent years strengthened his determination to build the scrapped cave into a center to promote water resource protection.

    In late December 2012, Jia sent his application to the Nanshan District Government.

    His idea got the consent of the district government because it proved to be a good extension of the government’s aim to build a historical fortress park in the place to promote patriotism education.

    Jia started the project in January, and had to spend tens of thousands yuan of his own savings on it before he was eligible for any financial support from the government. However, monetary support failed to come but Jia didn’t quit.

    In March, he moved all his possessions into the cave and has been living there ever since. He used his hands to build the museum whenever there is time. Sometimes he would go out to earn funds by selling his paintings or teaching children to paint.

    The site of the museum, on a hillside at the intersection between Chiwan Road and Zuopaotai Road, remains a shabby place with a bamboo ladder as an improvised entrance and woven plastic bags as the ceiling overhead.

    “I have no way to make the place better because I couldn’t afford to hire people, so I have to work with my own hands,” Jia said.

    He said he has asked support from a few organizations or government departments, but it was in vain and he was even mistaken as a swindler.

    According to Jia a large sum of money is needed to improve its infrastructure, such as access, ventilation, lighting, fire prevention and other safety facilities, although contents for display information promoting environmental protection, he said, can be handmade by him. “It is estimated to cost 1 million yuan (US$ 167,000) if a moderate museum is to be built,” he said. “I want to turn the place into an exhibition hall, illustrating how water pollution is affecting our lives and will affect our future.”

    He wants to get support from society to fulfill this dream. “I thought of opening a picture exhibition with the artifacts using my painting technique. Now I want donations for my museum. The cave is my home and I won’t leave it unless it is built into an environmental protection museum.”

    A volunteer herself, Xu said Jia is a respectable person who has dedicated his whole life to the public course. “He is a pioneer on environmental protection, but society needs more people to take a united effort, rather than him working alone. We all worried about his health and hope he could live a better life,” Xu added.