Farmer's miniatures focus on rural life

Since he began uploading short videos of his miniature landscape artworks to social media platforms, Li Shuchen has received over 10 million views and 200,000 likes.

The 50-year-old farmer from Fengshun village in Dongning, a county-level city under the administration of Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang province, took three months to finish two landscapes based on miniature versions of the traditional rural houses of the past.

The pieces, which include rammed-earth houses, fenced yards, chicken racks, dog kennels and even polyester curtains with bamboo patterns, are very detailed and have been praised by netizens.

"Rammed-earth houses, built by tamping mud between boards, are warm in winter and cool in summer, but they're not often seen nowadays," Li said.

"I was born and raised in this kind of home, and making them has brought back a lot of good memories."

At first, Li tried making short videos about rural life in Northeast China in the 1970s and 1980s, but the changes were too great.

"I found some shots difficult to film because the metal houses, telegraph poles and external air conditioners were obviously out of place," he said. "Then I had the idea of making miniatures."

Before Spring Festival, he began working on his first piece, which was modeled after the old house he lived in as a child.

"It took 24 days and around 4,000 yuan ($581) to finish it," he said.

"Most of the money was used to buy the tools."

Most of the materials Li uses are easily found, such as reeds, straws, corn stalks and corn leaves.

The main structure is made of high-density foam board, and the soil for the walls comes from nearby fields. "In fact, I had little art knowledge or experience," he said. "Before I started, I did a lot of research on materials and kept experimenting with them."

It took 27 days to finish his second miniature.

Both landscapes have been made on a 1:30 scale.

Meanwhile, Li spends several hours a day filming the process and then uploading the short videos. "I hope they allow people to get a feeling for the kind of life we lived," he said. "I also hope they'll help promote tourism in my hometown and entice more tourists to Dongning to experience rural life."

zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn