Five days to go before the Year of the Monkey begins and one Chinese artist specializing in Peking Opera mask-making is already getting a piece of the holiday pie.
Zhao Yongqi, an artist specializing in making Peking Opera masks is already finding the coming year of the Monkey is bringing some good business..
"In the animal kingdom, the monkey is a very naughty creature, so every Year of the Monkey is quite chaotic and restless, just like the monkey's personality, quite restless," Zhao said.
Zhao has been painting monkey faces onto these Peking Opera masks for the past three decades.
Though it's a form of art cherished by generations, he didn't think he would be able to make a business out of it at first.
"We Chinese have a saying that good business is no match for artistic skills. If you can learn an artistic skill then you can support a family, a big family. That's why I learned this skill. Gradually I started learning, little by little. From the beginning, I studied a bit and then gradually perfected my skills, then developed my business," Zhao said.
Monkey masks, painted by Zhao sell from 60 yuan to several hundred yuan depending on the designs.
Holiday shoppers who believe buying objects in the form of the zodiac animal will bring them a year of luck, have created a high demand for Zhao's masks.
"As it's about to be the Year of the Monkey, a lot of monkey art is already selling well, and selling out. The supply is not meeting the demand. Because for China, the monkey is a symbol of real intelligence, people really like it," Gift store owner Wu Changzhen said.
Art collectors are also among the buyers.
"It's very rare that people will devote all of their attention to developing this art form and letting it shine. I think it's because he has this spirit to really show off this traditional Chinese art, and he works very hard to achieve this. We can see that he belongs to a minority of people," Art collectro and salesman Wang Zhubing said.
As the orders keep coming in, Zhao plans to open up a gallery for his monkey masks in Tianjin, not only because it will be good business, but also because of the passion he has for the naughty creatures.
