Past, present, and future of "Gi-fumimura", a giant copy art industry in China, mass-producing copies of masterpiece paintings

China, the "factory in the world", is responsible for the manufacture of a wide variety of industrial products ranging from clothing to electric appliances. Such China is a world's largest counterfeit manufacturing area which mass-produces mass-produced professionals like industrial products worldwide as a painting which is a work of art as "painter"Daemyun VillageIt was created. Daemon village seems to be changing to a place where new art is born due to the arrival of the Internet age.

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Land prices continue to rise in recent years in China's electronic cities "Shenzhen (Shenzhen)" with economic development. It is located in the southern suburbs of ShenzhenDaemyun VillageThe area named after was a world-class copy town, which was once manufactured on a large scale for paintings (duplicated images) of oil paintings.


It is said that Huang Jiang (Hwang Jiang) who was making duplicate paintings in Hong Kong moved the base from the soaring land price to the big fame of the neighboring town across the border is the beginning of Daemyun Village. In the painting market that grew in Hong Kong since the late 1980s, Mr. Hwang said he was dealing with massive duplications to customers all over the world.


Mr. Hwang's duplicate painting studio adopted a system like a "factory" which is quite different from the atelier of a general painter. Factory designed to shorten production time is a sharing system where painters (those who produce duplicates) are exclusively in charge of parts of pictures, like automobile production lines, for example, only "eyes" Dividing organization has been established, such as those who just color those who just color themselves and those who draw only "flowers", Mr. Hwang "manufactures" and delivers 50,000 paintings to Wal-Mart in the United States for a month and a half It is said that.


"Showroom" of painting in Daimimura


At the peak, 2000 artists were mass producing large duplicates in Daimyo. At the time, the owner of Daimekura's counterfeiting manufacturing factory said, "The oil painting copy industry peaked from 1988 to 2000. At that time the Internet was not popular, mass production of famous paintings was the industry It was all of us, two-thirds of the orders we received were those signed by a fake Western painter. "


In the 1990s, the Chinese government also adopted a policy to tax incentives and rent subsidies to promising fields that are rapidly growing, Mr. Hwang's business in Daemyun Village is a commercial art of China It brought unprecedented revenue to. However, Daimarumura gradually lost momentum as the world's demand for mass-produced duplications declined and the media's eye on copyright infringement became severe.


Shenzhen, China's Silicon Valley, continued its economic development, and as the Tokyo metropolitan area continued to spread, the development zone became swallowed by the development zone. Initially, the vicinity of Daemen was changed to a city where high-rise apartments are lining up, and Daemon Village left behind is manufacturing duplicated pictures in a room of a high-rise apartment.


Also, hated by the huge farm land price, the reproduction picture manufacturing industry has moved to the surrounding area. Mr. Lee, who was engaged in the production work of duplicate paintings in Dongguan City for eight years, learned the basics of painting at the art school and then entered the painter for apprenticeship. When I was young, Lee, who loved art and drawing paintings, was the only hobby, but he told me that painting was "just a job".


On the other hand, there are art cities derived from Daimonmura's reproduction industry. In Xiamen City, which is close to Shanghai, since the 1990 's, the number of specialized artists working in the area has decreased, but now more than 30 thousand artists are active. A manager with an oil painting maker in Xiamen City had produced copies of Marilyn Monroe as a painter who duplicated counterfeit. "After a certain period of time, I no longer need to use the image of the picture I will use for reference," I recalled that time.


When Daimimura was at its peak, the plant managers of duplicating paintings and the artists who produced duplicates had to rely on brokers to connect with customers who purchased replicated images. Although the brokers gained huge profits from the information gaps in the underground market, in the reproduction picture industry paradigm shift due to the appearance of the Internet is occurring.


Among the painters working on the production of duplicate images, there are people who make new works with their own sensibilities,InstapaintingThere is a trend to sell their works directly to overseas customers through online services like. Shaomin Zeng who lives in Putian city known as Nan An 's painting street claims that he sold his own works embodying photorealism at Instapainting and claimed seven times the cost of making a general duplicate painting. Mr. Zeng creates activities using local companies who specialize in exchanging English with clients, packing works, shipping, etc., and can concentrate on making works without being affected by customer support It is said that it is.


Duplication picture manufacturing industry that I came up at Daimin Village spread throughout China through subdivision after criticism of global recession, criticism against copyright infringement, soaring land prices, but in the era of democratization through the Internet It seems that with the arrival, talented artists are born and are making changes to compete and create new works.