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Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin
Lawva and I'm Alice Irasari. Spotlight uses

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a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand no

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matter where in the world did they
live. Jiao si how young dips his

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brush into a patch of oil paint. Then he takes the brush and carefully

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touches it to the surface of the
painting. The painting is of a group

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of yellow flowers. Normally, these
sunflowers are a symbol of happy things,

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but here the flowers hang down.
It is as if they are as saddened

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as the painter himself. Siow Young
is not making his own work. Instead,

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he is copying a painting. It
is by the famous artist Vincent Van

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Goh. Copying Van Go has become
Siou Yong's life work. It is his

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business. Together he and his family
have made thousands of Van Go paintings.

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They sell them to people all over
the world. Siao Yong's work may seem

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unusual, but he and his family
live in Daifan oil painting village in China.

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In Daifan, thousands of other painters
copy work by famous artists as well.

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They spend much of their lives with
Western artists who are not famous in

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China. Today's spotlight is on Daifan
oil painting village. Dauphin Village is a

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small part of the city of Shenzen, China. It is less than half

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a kilometer wide, but it is
home to over eight thousand painters. At

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one point, it was responsible for
sixty percent of the world's painting reproductions.

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But Daifen was not always known for
its art. For a long time,

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Daifen was mostly farmland. The village
itself did not have many people. It

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was near Shensen, but there was
not much there. Wang Jiung was a

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businessman and painter from Hong Kong.
In nineteen eighty nine, he visited Shenjen

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and he visited Dafen. He recognized
that Dauphin would be a good place to

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set up his business, so he
bought several buildings there and he employed several

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people to make rep productions for him. These people were not trained artists,

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many were farmers or laborers. Jung
had to teach them how to paint.

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As time went by, more people
came to Dayphen looking for jobs. Jong's

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business expanded, and other painters like
him began to travel to Dayfan. They

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were trying to follow his example.
Joe Jung Ju is another painter from Daphen.

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He came to the village in those
early years. He spoke about his

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experiences in the documentary China's Van Goes
in nineteen ninety one. There were many

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people painting in Dafen. I also
wanted a job, so I came.

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But we have never seen oil painting
in our hometown. We also did not

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know how to paint it. Every
day we painted these things van God money,

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but we did not know these painters. At the time. We had

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a lot of orders we had to
work on paintings. There were three lines

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with seven people in a line.
Everyone painted a part of the painting.

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In those years, we finished nearly
three hundred thousand copies. As time went

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by, more and more people came
to the village. It soon became known

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for its oil paintings. Almost everyone
living there had something to do with making

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art, but painting copies was not
an easy life. Jao Ziyo Jung also

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came to Dafen early. He learned
to paint and even started his own business.

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But even and then he worked in
difficult conditions. He would receive many

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large orders from foreign businesses. They
would use these paintings to put in hotels

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or in homes. They would sell
them in other countries at a higher price.

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Ciao Jung and his family would work
very long hours to finish the orders.

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They lived, slept, and ate
together in their art studio. They

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even raised their children there. They
worked through heat and sickness for very little

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pay. Then in two thousand and
eight, something changed. The world economy

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went into recession. People all over
the world lost jobs or had a hard

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time finding them. They had less
money to spend on things like paintings.

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Before, most sales came from outside
of China. Afterwards, these sales fell

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off. This was a difficult time
for many of Dafen's painters. Work was

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sometimes hard to find. There was
much less demand for Western copies. But

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this was not always a bad thing. Many of these painters had been copying

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other people's work for years. They
had the skills to make their own work,

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but making copies had brought them more
money. Now they had time to

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be creative, they could start making
original pieces of art. Jiao Ciao Young

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was one painter who began making his
own work during this time. He began

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by painting a version of his first
studio. Then he painted portraits of people

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in his hometown. Siow Young had
copied Van Go for years, so his

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paintings were in that style, but
soon he began to develop his own images

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and goals. Before as Yao Yung
began painting his originals, he was unsure

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if he would be successful. He
did not know if anyone would buy his

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work. He spoke in the documentary
China's Van Goes about his hope and his

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fears. My life is my art
just like this, not now, but

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maybe in fifty or one hundred years
time, people will like our paintings.

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Now people might say these people's paintings
are not good. But if we wait

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fifty to one hundred years, then
there will be a generation that understands us.

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They will like our paintings. But
Sioo Yong did not need to wait

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that long. For many years,
people knew Daphan for its copies, but

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soon people in China began to go
there for original works too. They wanted

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to buy work that was about their
own country. Former farmers were now opening

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their own galleries. They were not
just painters now they were artists. For

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some people, these changes may be
surprising. Copying paintings does not seem creative,

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but it may be the best way
to learn. Eddie Kala is an

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American artist who has worked with people
in Daphin. For him, this development

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makes a lot of sense. He
spoke about Daphin on the podcast ninety nine

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percent Invisible. We always start copying. That is how learning works. If

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you learn to play an instrument,
they teach you how to play existing songs.

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They do not say, well,
write an original song. And so

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I think that is how all things
grow. Today, there are still many

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copy shops in Daphon. Reproductions of
Western artists still hang in shops. Still

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these paintings sell across the world,
but now Daphen has many galleries of original

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artists as well. It is still
a place where people work long hours for

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little pay, but Dayphon is also
a place where people can grow and become

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more than what they were. What
do you think is copying a painting art?

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If not? What makes art art? You can leave a comment on

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our website at www dot Spotlight English
dot com. You can also find us

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on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and
Twitter. The writer of this program was

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Dan Christman. The producer was Michio
Ozaki. The voices you heard were from

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the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program

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and voiced by Spotlight. This program
is called the ten Thousand Masterpieces of Daiphen

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Village. You can also get our
programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple

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device through our free official Spotlight English
app. We hope you can join us

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again for the next Spotlight program.
Goodbye,