In the past 40 years, China has seen a boom in its cultural industry. In this episode of Movers and Shakers, we talk to Leng Jun, an artist specializing in traditional, realistic oil painting. We'll take a look at how the reform and opening up policy has changed his life and the influence it has had on his career.

Recognized for his Fine Art paintings of still live and detailed and realistic portraits of women, Leng Jun endows his works with vitality and richness of color. His paintings have been sold regularly at auctions throughout China and have been acquired for private and institutional collections worldwide.

His work is the result of careful observation and meticulous practice. Getting really close to his subjects, Leng convincingly depicts the details using his highly sophisticated techniques. However his paintings are often misunderstood as high-tech products. Some even argue that they are too much like photography.

LENG JUN ARTIST "Although many people say that they are like photos, people who have seen the original work know that it is definitely beyond a photo. It is impossible to be like a photo. If it is like a photo, it doesn't make sense because it has no irreplaceable place. The value of the existence of anything lies in its irreplaceability."

Born in 1963 in Sichuan Province, Leng has always had a passion for painting. On entering college in Hubei Province, Leng began to learn oil painting. But years before that, he'd already had a chance to give it a try.

LENG JUN ARTIST "My first oil painting was in the first or second grade of middle school. At that time no pigments were available. A friend gave me two, a red one and a yellow one. But there was no white pigment. I said it won't work without white pigment. So, he gave me a self-made one. It was very rough. And I just made it up myself and painted a child. That was my first oil painting."

After the reform and opening up policy in 1978, China saw a boom in its cultural market, to make up for what had been lost in the past decades. And Leng's studenthood married with this important time period.

LENG JUN ARTIST "For people like me who were born around the 1960s, we were teenagers at the time when we formed our world view. That was a great opportunity. Looking back, reform and opening-up really saved the soul of our generation. At that time, things from the West were introduced. Especially when I graduated from college, my biggest job back then was to go to Xinhua Bookstore to order books. At that time, there was a tabloid in the bookstore, showing the books that were going to be published that week. And it took five cents to order a book. There were so many people who ordered books at that time, unlike now. There are more books now, books are everywhere, but there were very few books back then. At the time, information coming from the West made a great contribution to the enlightenment of our people. It also laid a very solid foundation for my later creations."

The 1985 New Wave Art movement had an extraordinary impact on China's art. As a young man who had just graduated from college, Leng first spent some time focusing on modern and expressionist painting. His turn to realistic painting was actually quite random. He was asked to be a judge at an art festival, where each judge needed to provide a realistic work.

LENG JUN ARTIST "I had a set of still lifes in the house that day and finished painting them one afternoon. I didn't think the outcome was bad and felt encouraged. So, I changed to another set of still lifes, and drew another one the next day. It took me two days for that one, and I felt it was much better than the first one. Later, I changed to another set and drew for a week. Then, another set and drew for half a month. The last one I painted took a month. From half a day a piece to a month a piece. The paintings looked different, and the last one was very thorough. Looking back, it was a very natural process. I didn't think of drawing so-called super-realism. It just came into being one piece after another."

The golden age for the development of realistic oil painting in China was in the 1980s. At that time, a large number of excellent realistic oil paintings appeared, such as Luo Zhongli's 'Father' and Chen Danqing's 'Tibetan Group Painting'. These works became the hallmark of that period.

LENG JUN ARTIST "In fact, during the 1960s and 70s, the period of socialist realism oil painting, there were many outstanding talents and works. For example, 'Occupation of the Presidential Palace,' put aside the content, the composition of the painting, the design of the dramatic scene and the subtle depiction of each character, everything is precise. There were many such works in China at that time. After reform and opening-up, Art was freed from being subordinate to politics. At the time, it became more about the pursuit of art itself. We also made great achievements in this period. The level of realistic oil paintings in China in the 1990s was among the best in the world."

Leng uses his work to express his attitude and views towards the world. In the 1990s, he created a large number of paintings with critical themes. After the collapse of a department store in South Korea, Leng created "Century Sceneries 3". In the painting, children's toys are surrounded by industrial rubble, showing the weakness and helplessness of people in an industrial society. And in "Century Sceneries 4", a world map is put together on the hospital bed using syringes, scalpels, and used sheets.

LENG JUN ARTIST "Reflections on modern civilization, industrialization and life, this past thinking will form a result later. This result appears in the form of a concept and reveals itself in the paintings."

In 2004, Leng made his first female portrait named "Mona Lisa—the design of smile". This work gives new meaning to Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting 'Mona Lisa'.

LENG JUN ARTIST "Looking back at the tradition in the eyes of our present generation. I chose the theme of Mona Lisa, because the painting is so famous. When talking about traditional paintings and portraits, the first that people think of is Mona Lisa. Nothing is more representative than it. So I chose Mona Lisa and then used my cutting-edge artistic language to paint a modern person, but the theme was from the past. That's why the name of my work is 'Mona Lisa--the design of smiling'."

Later, the artist created a series of portraits which gained great popularity worldwide. His 'Portrait of the Face - Xiaowen' grabbed 60 million yuan at auction in 2015.

LENG JUN ARTIST "I want to push my painting skills to a higher level. What is the most difficult thing? To paint people. For example, still life or rusted metals, they are not something we see every day. People deal with people the most, and people are most familiar with people. To portray people and make others believe is the hardest thing."

In the end, what makes a painting successful is the emotional expression which is based on all these fundamental things.

LENG JUN ARTIST "It must be a natural state. You must find something that you love the most, the thing that will best stimulate your feelings. You cannot come up with it. It must not be you thinking about something and trying to love it. That love must have a lot of hypocritical elements. It's definitely felt, and it feels like a real desire for this thing, this is the time to draw."

Since becoming famous, Leng has been given lectures and demonstrations to college students around China. Recently, he also received invitations from abroad. While relishing the chance to work with young artists, it does leave less time for his own work.

LENG JUN ARTIST "I paint less, but there are still many ideas in my head. For example, if I think of a theme, and don't have time to paint, then this idea will be replaced by another thought. It's like an upgraded version, and the previous one is eliminated. But I also don't have enough time to paint this upgraded version, so there comes a third version, and the second one is eliminated. So even though the art work in my head is evolving and upgrading, it never turns into a real piece. This is the most regrettable thing."

In Leng's eyes, even though oil painting was introduced from the west, China's profound culture has provided the art form with something more. 

LENG JUN ARTIST "Chinese oil painting has its own patterns and its own style, because China is ancient and prominent, with thousands of years of cultural heritage. In the field of painting, we absorb from the West and accept Western skills very fast. We can quickly assimilate it into our own culture and form our own styles."

Leng Jun grew up in Chinese traditional culture. Even though he paints oil painting, and employs the seemingly western art form, he expresses himself as the inheritance of Chinese culture. Behind the accurate and lifelike depictions, there lay his faith and ideals.