DPRK paintings impress visitors to Chinese expo

Women in traditional Korean dress, beautiful landscapes, multicolored birds: paintings by artists from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fascinated a crowd of visitors to the Sixth China-Russia Expo.

More than 100 paintings by over 70 established DPRK artists were on display at an art exhibition held on the sidelines of the expo, which concluded Wednesday in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"The leaf veins in the painting are so lifelike. I can't imagine the efforts behind the work," said Qian Shuguo, a visitor to the exhibition, when appreciating an oil painting called "chirps of birds, the fragrance of flowers."

Another visitor He Junru, when watching a painting depicting a DPRK woman in traditional clothes, said she was enchanted by the "traditional Korean culture shown in the painting."

Wang Di, the exhibition's art consultant, said the exhibits had been well received by the visitors, and more than 30 paintings had been sold within four days. "The paintings portraying DPRK people are especially popular with our visitors," she said.

"The exhibits are mainly realistic oil paintings which feature bright colors and are exquisitely executed," Wang said. "They cater to the taste of many Chinese people."

Wang works as a consultant at a Harbin-based art company which specializes in trading foreign artworks. Since 2014, the company has held a number of DPRK painting exhibitions in first-tier Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

"DPRK paintings have been one of our best-selling categories in the past few years," Wang said.
Besides paintings, a variety of commodities from DPRK, such as handicrafts, herbs and foods, also became a hit at the expo.

The 11 DPRK booths in the expo's International Pavilion were often crowded with visitors, some of whom traveled from other Chinese cities to Harbin to purchase DPRK commodities.

Zuo Ke, a resident from the city of Yichun in Heilongjiang, bought a handmade feather fan from a DPRK booth. "I like the fan a lot because it's meticulously crafted from natural materials," he said.