Artists just like their parents

The 10th-grader at Harrow International School Beijing distorts photos of her face using Photoshop and then draws them as portraits on pumpkins using her cosmetics.

"Although my parents are both artists, they never taught me how to paint," she says.

"They've always encouraged me to do what I want, artistically."

Xu Bing says the children of many of his peers are studying art and following their parents' paths.

"We provide them an environment full of art, and that's all we can offer," he says.

"Our children are lucky to have anything they want at hand. Globalization enables them to blur cultural lines between East and West."

Their parents' acclaim creates not only advantages but also pressure, since the kids live in their folks' shadows.

Oil painter Zhang Yanzi's daughter, Shen Cai, grapples with not attaining her mother's level of success.

Her severe astigmatism was discovered when she started to paint at age 16. Her works were different from others'－blurry and distorted.

Her recent works show the twisted images she sees.

She put layers of ink figures on silk leftover from her mother's works.

"Mom gives me lots of instructions and suggestions. She has high expectations of me. She asks me to present my works for her approval," says the 20-year-old, who's studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

She says there's much she can try in her future. She may do art for the rest of her life, since it's her source of happiness.

Her mother says she's confident in the generation of artists born after 1990.

"The education my generation received last century seldom encouraged our imagination and creativity," Zhang says.

"But our kids are different. They live in an age that values personality and uniqueness. That's what art needs."

Contact the writer at dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn