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Shanghai artist recreates Peking-Opera masks

Updated: Aug 26,2015 10:29 AM     cntv.cn

His family members may have complained about his prodigious appetite for eggs, but now they’re celebrating his artistic output! We visit a 77-year-old man in Shanghai who, with his decade-long hobby of painting Peking-opera masks on eggshells, has become an Internet sensation.

Boxes upon boxes, piled high with his fragile works of art. Fei Yongquan has turned his living room into a museum.

He’s a huge fan of Peking Opera but, having decided his own talents did not lie in singing, turned instead to painting opera masks ... and on an unusual surface.

Fei began this art form a decade ago, after retiring from a local school. Since then, he has done thousands of mask paintings. These include characters in classic Chinese novels, including “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “Water Margin”. But Fei is most proud of his “Journey to the West” series.

Fei never sells his work, instead giving the eggshells to friends as gifts. Nowadays, he is teaching art at a community school in Shenzhuang, helping more people, old and young, to master the skill.