Junior high school students in Yunnan create 17-meter-long painting in salute to ancient Chinese masterpiece

A group of junior high school students in Kunming, capital city of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, created a 17-meter-long landscape painting as a salute to an ancient Chinese painting masterpiece. 

Thirty-one eighth-graders from the Xishan High School of Kunming No. 1 High School finished their painting in one week by imitating the style of the 12-meter-long landscape painting masterpiece “A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers,” by Wang Ximeng (1096-1119), a genius painter from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). It’s surprising that these young students could complete a painting that features rolling mountains using traditional Chinese painting techniques, as they learned the skills from scratch in just two months.

To help the students gain a deeper understanding of the charm of traditional art, Li Haiyan, who teaches traditional Chinese painting to them, explained the ancient masterpiece to them in all of its many details. She also let the students watch an episode of the TV program National Treasure, which told the stories behind the masterpiece.

“The students were stunned by the painting scroll and its blue-green landscape,” said Li, adding that it’s her responsibility to help the students appreciate the beauty of profound traditional Chinese culture and art and to spread Chinese civilization all across the country.

Now Li is busy guiding her students to create a scroll about the splendid scenery in Yunnan Province using traditional Chinese painting skills.