In the early years of the People's Republic of China, Chinese artists were encouraged to employ socialist realism. Some Soviet Union socialist realism was imported without modification, and painters were assigned subjects and expected to mass-produce paintings. This regimen was considerably relaxed in 1953, and after the Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956-57, traditional Chinese painting experienced a significant revival. Along with these developments in professional art circles, there was a proliferation of peasant art depicting everyday life in the rural areas on wall murals and in open-air painting exhibitions.

During the Cultural Revolution, art schools were closed, and publication of art journals and major art exhibitions ceased with major destructions done as part of the elimination of Four Olds campaign.

Following the Cultural Revolution, art schools and professional organizations were reinstated. Exchanges were set up with groups of foreign artists. Chinese artists began to experiment with new subjects and techniques in their attempt to bring Chinese painting to a new height.

Father-Chinese Oil Painting

Chen Rong was a renowned painter in the Sung Dynasty who specialized in painting dragons. Throughout the history of China, there were some renowned painters of dragons such as Tsao Bu-Xing of the Three Kingdoms Period and Zhang Seng-You of the Southern Dynasties according to Zhang Yan-Yuan's Record of Famous Paintings of Successive Dynasties, however, none of their Chinese dragon paintings exists today.

Dragon - Chinese Painting

Horse is always known as the clever, faithful, brave animal that is able to endure hard work for its characteristic. The ancients of China regard the horse as the symbol of honor, auspiciousness and authority. They often compare horse to talented person in Chinese painting as well.

Eight Noble Horses Painting: All of them are running. This Chinese horse painting has implied that there is a splendid assemblage advance (talented persons together) bravely and successfully. It is suitable for company, office and study, especially fit for boss.

Horse - Chinese Painting

The chicken is a common subject in Chinese painting, belonging to the category of flower-and-bird painting. The Chinese character for the Chicken is a homophone of auspicious, thus making it particularly popular among Chinese artists.

Chicken - Chinese Painting

Shrimp live in both fresh water and salt water. Shrimp is one of delicious food all over the world. Their appearances, features of vivid, transparent, and energetic, are beautiful but not easy to be captured in Chinese paintings. In China, lobster is literally “dragon shrimp”. It represents energy and spirit, and regeneration, resoluteness.

Shrimp - Chinese Painting

Chinese landscape painting, in general, is the famous paintings art that take landscapes as themes, treats the natural mountains and rivers as major description objects. As the saying goes, mountains represent population and water is emblem of property. It means that if somewhere have a flourishing population is related to mountains, and whether wealthy is connected with water.

Chinese mountain and water painting forms its own artistic tradition and system. Through mountain and water paintings, people can taste both artistic conception and the artistic style of Chinese paintings well.

Mountains and water - Chinese Painting

Pheasants belong to the Phasianidae. They have colorful and gorgeous feathers, and they are one of the rare species particularly in China. Pheasant is also called “Jin Ji”, which sounds like "gold and auspiciousness" in Chinese pronunciation, so it has very auspicious meanings in Chinese paintings.

In Chinese Pheasant Painting, the combination with characters Magnolia symbolizes "Treasures fill the home".

Pheasant - Chinese Painting

Firstly, the realistic type of painting, which plays the most important part in Chinese oil paintings. It is no coincidence, but the option of nearly a hundred years of traditional Chinese painting and art education. However, realistic painting was not highly developed. Among the early painters, students to Japan can only learn secondary oil painting, and although the students to the west were able to learn directly, it is difficult for them to reach a higher level for short learning time and lacking of corresponding painting environment since they returned home. Yet today, painters have more chances to go abroad, therefore, more standard realist painter emerged.

Secondly, the phenotype of oil painting, for the social and cultural transformation of the historic environment, and the reference and employment of European expressionism art traditions, phenotype oil painting has great development, which emerged a great number of talented works. But many painters have a tendency of ignoring skill, weakening nature of painting and stylizing it quickly. How to adhere to the unity of painting and individuality performance and strengthen the social value of personal expression, is a critical issue that phenotype of oil painting should face with.

The thirdly type is abstract painting. The emergence of abstract art has a lot to do with modern mechanical civilization and modern design, it refused themes and topics, depiction and reproduction, but pursuing form of painting and spiritual purity. In recent centuries, abstract painting are popular all over the world, emerged a wide range of genres and styles.

The last type is ideational type. Ideational type put the expression of meaning in the first place, while painting technique, the image of beauty and ugliness and the description are irrelevant. It means that for ideas, it can give up classical principles. The value lies in its spirit is the pursuit of ideal meanings, which are targeted with a social reality, so it is often ironic and critical.

Mandarin duck - Chinese painting

Peacock also symbolizes high ranking. So peacock painting is suitable to be given as a gift for hanging in the house or moving to a new house. In Fengshui theories, peacock represents yang, so nothing is a taboo to it.

Peacock&Peony - Chinese Painting

Mandarin ducks were called birds of love in ancient China. Paired mandarin ducks are as close as body and shadow. They fly together, swim together and sleep with their necks crossed. They pair for life. The bird will remain single if his or her mate dies. Because of this, mandarin ducks have become symbols of marital fidelity in Chinese paintings.

People usually present paintings of a pair of lovely mandarin ducks sporting in water to a newly married couple by way of wishing them perfect conjugal bliss. In Asian Decor Mandarin Ducks bring “feng shui” love. Chinese mandarin ducks painting intensifies good fortune and brings recognition luck and respect.

Mandarin Dark - Chinese Painting