(Ecns.cn) – An artist named Miao Zaixin spent 200 days and nights depicting China's 56 ethnic groups in a series of monumental traditional Chinese paintings.
The collection is titled "Minzu Zhiguang," or "The Lights of Nations," and consists of 56 paintings with a height of 182 cm (5.9 feet) and a width of 145 cm (4.75 feet).
Miao's inspiration came from a photo album of Chinese ethnic groups he had bought 20 years ago.
Mesmerized by the colorful dresses and distinctive cultural events depicted in the album, he was determined to "draw all of them" in the massive paintings.
According to Miao, sitting in front of the canvas did not help him reflect on the uniqueness of each character, so he spent countless hours on field trips for research.
The genuineness of the complexions, the facial expressions and body motions could only come from real people, he said.
Miao spent months travelling throughout China making sketches of people from the different ethnic backgrounds that he met.
