Rear windows offer view of ancient China's beauty

When Xiao Xiangzhong does a drawing, people are curious because he often draws on dusty rear windows of cars parked in the street.

The 68-year-old pensioner from Chengdu, Sichuan province, has used paper napkins instead of brushes to create his art in the eight years since he retired. The subjects of his pictures are mainly bucolic landscapes and the beauty of ancient China.

"People are fed up with modern forests of steel-and-concrete buildings. I want to give them something different," he said.

One picture shows three women - one plays the flute, another a lute and the third holds a fan - in a forest scene. The texture of their hair, their long eyelashes and the ruffles of their skirts are captured in great detail.

Another picture reminds viewers of times gone by and features an old farmer carrying vegetables with a shoulder pole, and a young woman with a baby in a bamboo container on her back.

The farmer carries a basket of fish with his left hand, while his right hand leads a young boy. Chickens wander in front of them and fishermen catch fish in a river portrayed in the scene.

Xiao spent less than 20 minutes drawing each of the two pictures. "I have loved painting since I was young," he said.

Born to a bricklayer's family of five children in Chongqing, Xiao was so preoccupied with painting as a youngster that he often forgot his meals. His father cursed and beat him, saying painting could not result in a rice bowl for a poor family.

"Unexpectedly, painting did give me a rice bowl," Xiao said in his old, small apartment where he lives with his wife, Chen Xiurong.

He received a farmer's education in Mingshan county, in Sichuan, for three years before he started a year's training in a painting class at the Chengdu Teachers' School in 1972. After completing his training, he was assigned a job as a painting teacher at a high school in the northern suburbs of Chengdu.

One of his roommates was He Dulin, now a master oil painter. "If Xiao Xiangzhong had not suffered from color blindness, he would have become a master oil painter, too," He said after viewing Xiao's dusty pictures.

After he retired, Xiao devoted more time to drawing. "Whenever I saw a dusty rear window, I felt the urge to draw with a finger. But when I used a finger, a woman's eyebrow tended to be as thick as that of a strong man's arm. I have to use a paper napkin, turning the napkin into a long strip and using one end to draw," he said.

Xiao likes drawing so much that he cannot resist creating art on dusty automobiles parked in the street.

"When I visited Zhengyi, Guizhou province, two years ago, I drew in the street. Almost all the drivers in and outside Sichuan are friendly and allow me to draw," he said.

The only time somebody refused to let him draw was in mid-January. A middle-aged driver shouted rudely at Xiao for drawing on his van without permission while it was parked outside Xiao's apartment.

Gao Hongju, a 28-year-old English teacher, lives near Xiao and likes the drawings on the two cars at her home, so much so that she asked him to be her painting teacher.

"When we wash the cars, we do not wash the rear windows in order to keep the pictures for as long as possible," Gao said. "Once we had to clean off a drawing after a policeman said he would deduct 12 points from my driving license because the rear window was so dusty, which would have meant being banned from driving for a year."

Xiao said he will continue to draw for as long as he lives. "First, I love it. Second, I don't want to be senile. My father became senile before he passed away and I don't want that to happen to me," he said.

huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn