I’m a Yunnan native
I have been living in Yunnan for a life
I have been painting plants for 60 years
I’m so honored that there’s an art museum named after me
It was renovated from an old building and it fits in the surrounding environment
It’s a fortunate coincidence
Because COP 15 was held here
I have created more than 130 paintings for COP15 in the past two years
Some of them are exhibited here
For my folks in Yunnan to see
It’s also a home for my works
I started working since I had graduated from middle school
I didn’t go to a college
In 1958, I worked in the Kunming Botanical Institute
And the compiling of Flora of China started in 1959
I was only 19
I learned botany
And drew specimens in day
And I copied floral paintings at night
I frequented the specimen institute, the botanic garden
And the library
I drew with really realistic and fine touches
Or simple lines
To show the specimen
With painting elements
The parallel lines have to be clear and can’t cross
It should have the function of presenting the plant’s features
I drew around 2000 paintings
Flora of China contains over 30,000 angiospermous plants
A dozen million characters and over 9,000 pictures
There were 164 illustrators like me in total in China
Now half of them passed away
After the compiling of the magazine came to an end, the group was dismissed
And I had also reached the age of retirement
Where will the plant painting in China go
So we began to walk out of institutes
And walked into the nature
We still present the features and shape
Of each species
If it has 10 stamens
You can’t just draw 3 or 5
But we need to present it
In a more beautiful and lively way
Oil painting, watercolor, propylene
And even Chinese painting
I’m a lucky old man
I still have something to do and my hands don’t shake
He had received a surgery and one of his lungs was removed
The left lung doesn’t function well
He feels time is precious
He lives in the institute
It’s more convenient to collect materials
He draws at least 8 hours a day
So he wishes he would be given more time
To paint
I don’t want to see
Plant painting ends in my hands
I started to draw it yesterday
I began at 4:00 am
I started drawing at 8 or 9
And I stopped at 11 pm
One day when I was walking with my wife
It fell right in front of me
I picked it up
And found it was a dried branch
It looked like iron
I thought it wanted me to draw it
Each flower has its own way
To show a strong desire to survive
Sometimes it’s beyond our imagination
When you know it, you would feel the nature is amazing
I try my best
To show such a desire for life
And reproduction
I have some unrealized wishes
For example when I travelled to Xishuangbanna
I was so excited every day
Sometimes we lived in a tent
And the birds started to sing when it was still dark outside
Then I said I must draw birds one day
If I’m healthy enough
I plan to travel to Xishuangbanna again in three years
To paint the tropical landscapes
I must finish 100 paintings
I’m racing with time
When I’m working alone in a quiet place
I have a clear and calm mind
It was a hobby when I was young, and it was responsibility when I was working
And it’s a deep-rooted liking when I’m old
I have chosen it and I will stick to it for the rest of my life