Dafen, China, Oct.2008

This time round, Dafen disappoints. Something strange has happened to the place, and I'm not talking about those floods or those stolen Chinese paintings from the Museum of Modern Chinese Art (see previous blog entries on Dafen) or the village being strangled out by China's stupid and capricious "Punishment Policy" regarding visas and the resulting restrictions to visits to the Mainland.

This Chinese artists village is still there, sure, but there simply aren't any of those knuckle-biting gorgeous paintings.

Dafen paintings of former days!
Note the Ming Jun jesters!

There's a paucity to what's left and it's now bereft of magic. There's a coarseness to the art that, well, isn't what Dafen-of-the-past leads you to expect. You know, it's like a locust swarm went through and took everything that's worth anything and all that remains is the, well, remains.

Naturally, asked what happened and the word is that France swept by and took all the best paintings and artists off to set up a similar artist village in the South of France.

Those bloody French!!! First Muaroa and now this!!!! If it is true, how dare they rob China of such a vast National Treasure! And how could China let it happen! Don't they know what an asset they had up there in Shenzhen.

Of course, "going off to the South of France" could be a euphemism for something vastly more sinister. Or maybe it was just a brief and necessary "cultural exchange". Or maybe it's fall-out from the Darfan floods and visa-restrictions-so-no-visitors-so-no-sales and so maybe all the genuinely talented artists just packed up their art and went back to whatever part of China they originally came from.

Obviously the truth of this one needs to be found since Dafen is one of my very special places, and very special discoveries, and I don't like that it's now so much less than it once was.