Why traditional Chinese artist Bada Shanren’s eye-rolling birds are attracting a wave of young visitors, 400 years on

A two-venue exhibition in Nanchang marking the 400th anniversary of traditional Chinese painter Bada Shanren (Zhu Da, 1626–1705) has drawn unexpectedly strong interest from young visitors. “So Lofty the Spirit, So Eternal the Ink,” running from 10 July to 10 October at the Jiangxi Provincial Museum and the Bada Shanren Memorial Hall, had attracted about 400,000 visitors across both venues as of 15 September and brings together 129 paintings and calligraphic works from 22 institutions. The Memorial Hall reported more than one million views for exhibition-related posts, around 140,000 viewers for weekend livestream tours on Douyin, and roughly RMB 400,000 (about $59,000) in merchandise sales—such as plush toys inspired by the artist’s eye-rolling birds—during the first 20 days. The article also notes related shows at Beijing’s National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) on Bada Shanren’s influence on artists including Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, and Pan Tianshou, and an upcoming Shanghai Museum exhibition in December with loans from Washington, DC’s National Museum of Asian Art.

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