ubahnverleihEins meiner Lieblingsfotos der letzten HK-Reise #photography
OK, I might post some more photos of my 2025 Hong Kong and Shenzhen trip over the next few days. To make room for… maybe another journey… #photography
What I really like on these trips are these small details: This hole in the gate, just for the truck's mirror. And it seems that’s there for exactly this truck for ages.
„Hear me out! Let’s build 4 buildings on top of each other, and then put a 45-storey skyscraper on top of those.“ – „On a mountain?“ – „On a mountain!“
What I didn't realised until now is that I took another photo of the same alley from the other side. https://chaos.social/@ubahnverleih/115996970022459133
Looking at these pictures I remember how cool it was to explore all these cute small stairs and alleys around Kennedy Town at night.
And some of the stairs are quite high. Some of them even have escalators or elevators – just to reach the next street. The view from the top is spectacular!
Look, I found some more photos of alleys and stairs. All the pictures i posted today and yesterday are from the same 3 hour night walk.
That was the last photo I took that day, and so it's also the last one i post today. But I have a lot more I will post in the next days. Some of them even have daylight.
I love these small shops that often stay open late into the night, serving food to night workers.
But not only in Hong Kong. We also spotted some in the Dafen oil painting village in Shenzhen.
And in Dafen (Shenzhen) we stumbled across the cutest cat café ever. The cats weren't caged, but could come and go as they pleased via the balcony.
And i totally missed that it's #caturday today, which perfectly fits on this whole thread…
And i totally missed that it's #caturday today, which perfectly fits on this whole thread…
So, when we hear Shenzhen we think of electronics manufacturing. But Shenzhen is also very good in producing other things: Oil paintings. Let me explain. 🧵
In 1987, back when Shenzhen was only a small city, Huang Jiang had a workshop near the Hong Kong border. He produced replicas of famous paintings for the western market.
But as the city and the electronics industry grew, so did the rents. Huang Jiang needed to move his workshop. He chose the small and quiet village of Dafen. At the time it was not part of Shenzhen, meaning the painters did not require a permit to live there.
But as the city and the electronics industry grew, so did the rents. Huang Jiang needed to move his workshop. He chose the small and quiet village of Dafen. At the time it was not part of Shenzhen, meaning the painters did not require a permit to live there.
Huang Jiang was able to hire more painters and became quite successful. Some of Jiang‘s workers opened own workshops and painters from all over china moved to Dafen. Shenzhen factory workers hoping for more flexible working hours may also have come to Dafen to try their luck as painters.
In 1992, when a client ordered 360,000 paintings and they had to be finished in only 6 weeks, all the village’s painters joined forces and developed a factory-like assembly-line method. Each painter specialised in a specific part of the image. This drastically improved both speed and quality, enabling them to complete the task in time.
If you have a replica of a famous painting, chances are high it was painted in Dafen. I found numbers, that in it‘s peak times 50-70% of all oil painting replicas sold world wide were produced in Dafen.
Today the painters doesn’t only replicate famous paintings, but also make their own creations and develop their own styles and interpretations.
A mix of classic images, anime characters and portraits of celebrities, as well as landscapes, from which it is hard to tell whether they are classic or the painter's own creation.
The domestic market becomes more important these days, so you can spot some Chinese landscaspes and sights and i guess some Chinese classics.
Most of the artists we saw painting in their workshops were painting commissioned work, primarily portraits.
It’s so nice that you can look into these shops and you see the artists drawing such huge images
Around 10,000 artists live in the relatively small village of Dafen, and it shows. Many of the buildings are painted in a unique, colourful style.
asga@ubahnverleih How much is a Starry Night from Dafen?
@asga i didn't checked the prices when we were there. When i researched prices yesterday the price for commissions was nearly the same i would pay for a high quality print.
Philipp Waldhauer@ubahnverleih who needs 360k paintings in 6 weeks 🥲
Vogelgesang@pwa @ubahnverleih Either an artist or a hotel chain I wager.
@pwa The big customes where mostly big supermarkt or furniture store chains. Jiang’s first big customer was walmart
xhlllk@ubahnverleih That's very interesting. Just today i was looking to buy a print of a specific oil painting and found a website where they offered hand painted replicas. I was wondering how it could be so cheap.
Miss Megaphon@ubahnverleih danke für den tollen thread!
Ciara@ubahnverleih Great thread and great photos. Thanks for sharing this.
Lucas Werkmeister@ubahnverleih omigod their little ruffs!! 😍
(frills? collars? idk)
Ein Philosophiker@ubahnverleih Die Übersetzung stimmt mal wieder gar nicht. Katze ja, aber iwas mit 100 Güter. Und reich steht da auch nicht.
@slesa wenn das englische sinn ergibt, aber das chinesische in der Übersetzung eher nicht, dann ist es eher eine gute Übersetzung, weil beides für die jeweilige Zielgruppe sinnvoll lokalisiert ist
@ubahnverleih oder es ging wieder ein Wortwitz verloren. Ich muss dringend Kanji üben
Earl@ubahnverleih
That one is sleeping on the job.
That one is sleeping on the job.