Painting portraits of a continent

Ink artist Fu Xuming sensed Africa was different from other places he'd visited - a feeling he got when he smelled the fresh air and heard a plethora of languages upon landing.

"I'm a landscape artist," he says.

"But all I painted this time were people."

He was fascinated by locals' clothes and dances, and their attitudes toward life and people.

"Africa's art is awesome," he says.

"I only came to understand how it inspires many Western artists only after experiencing it in person."

The trip was part of a project to enhance cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges initiated by China's Culture Ministry.

In 2015, President Xi Jinping and African leaders signed the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Johannesburg Action Plan (2015-18). It included a project inviting officials, scholars and artists from China and Africa to undertake cultural exchanges.

African artists had been invited to Jiangsu province's capital, Nanjing, in 2011. They stayed for two months to experience Chinese culture.

The ministry will support more Chinese artists' trips to African countries, says Han Zhihong, an official in charge of African affairs from the Culture Ministry.

"We'll strengthen cooperation between China and Africa in art and cultural exchanges," Han says.

"It's a good way to know each other from the artistic side."

If you go

10 am-5 pm, July 19-28. 7 Daxue Road, Shinan district, Qingdao, Shandong province. 0532-8288-8886.