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NANCHANG, Oct. 6-- Unlike most of his peers with an unquenchable thirst for urban life, Zhou Jing, a 23-year-old farmer painter, has a special affinity for the golden paddy fields of his hometown. Zhou, who lives in a small town of Lichuan County, east China's Jiangxi Province, would drive a tractor on the bumpy country road to the fields every morning, and pack up the paddies in gunny bags with his father. With a paintbrush in hand and a paintbox on his desk, he was busy coloring a nearly finished oil painting of a bumper autumn harvest in the glow of several groggy light bulbs. Painting in his small studio fills a pleasant hour after a day's farm work for the young farmer who has studied painting for seven years. The scratch of paintbrushes is euphonic to his ear. Although he chose farm work over further study or migrant work after graduating from middle school in 2017, Zhou later signed up to learn to paint at a local industrial park specialized in oil painting. "I was hesitant, but I knew I should make a living by myself as soon as possible," he said. Yet his early paintings were no more than simple compositions of colored blocks, since the young man was not professionally trained. Zhou worked hard and continued to draw long after his classes had ended. Years of practice did indeed make perfect. Zhou gradually developed his own painting style, as well as the unity of colors. He was finally recognized and started his new career as a registered painter at the industrial park in April. | 
