The skyscarper is hiding behind the bridge. It's a shyscraper

I love these small shops that often stay open late into the night, serving food to night workers.

But the best thing about them: They are often guarded by cats.

The cats are the stars of the shops or even of the whole street.

They even guard hardware stores and workshops.

Look at these i found in the electronics markets in Sham Shui Po.

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…

Yesterday I mentioned the Dafen Oil Painting Village. But what is it? 🧵

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.

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.

I love these colors

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.

I haven't seen much streetart in the other parts of Shenzhen, it all seems to be concentrated in Dafen.

And, of course, it's not just oil paintings anymore. There are also artists creating sculptures or traditional Chinese calligraphy.

Between all the artists' workshops and shops selling paintings, there are many shops offering art supplies. For example, there are shops selling paint or canvas, as well as workshops building the frames. It's similar to how the electronics markets and factories in Shenzhen work: Only do what you are good at yourself, but keep the supply chain as close as possible. Everything you need is in one place.

These shops also seem to be locally owned. I haven’t seen anything that i identified as a brand or a chain.

Dafen is also developing into a tourist attraction. For example, you can learn how to paint your own Dafen Oil Painting.

Nevertheless, when we visited last year in March, it was barely visited and not overcrowded at all. The small alleys definitely seemed prepared for more tourists.

Yes, I have more photos from the Dafen Oil Painting village.

Some of these shops are artwork in themself.

Regarding the village’s origin story, you asked who would order 360,000 oil paintings and need them within 6 weeks. The large orders came from supermarket and furniture store chains. For example, Jiang’s first major order came from Walmart.

When we were in Dafen last year, we didn't see any mass production of oil paintings. I suppose it's still happening, but more on the upper floors, inside the buildings.

I love how many of the artists paint outside in front of their shops.

I'm still not sure if the people on this photo are professional artists or tourist learning how to paint.

I was impressed by how peaceful and relaxed the atmosphere in the village was. The people here seemed to be just… happy?

Some more impressions of the Dafen Oil Painting Village

It is fascinating to see how such a painting emerges.

So, that’s the last Dafen photo for now. I'll now continue looking through my photo library and see what other topics, stories or just random images I can find there.