How a Chinese painter turns himself ‘invisible’ to help save the planet
By Bryan Ke
A Chinese painter, skilled in seamlessly blending into his surroundings using body paint, is harnessing his social media fame to promote environmental protection.
Key points:
- Wang Liang, a 35-year-old painter from Jinan, Shandong province, is a famous Douyin content creator with nearly 1 million followers. Many of his fans know him as the “human chameleon.”
- Aside from Douyin, Wang’s work was also featured multiple times on the Facebook pages of state-owned media outlet People’s Daily in 2022 and 2023.
The details:
- Using acrylic paints, oil brushes and other tools, Wang uses his body as his canvas when creating his mind-bending artwork. He told Ziniu News that the preparation for his content usually take two to three hours to complete.
- He also has to be mindful of his environmental details, such as the background, color and sunlight, to perfectly camouflage himself. Wang explained, “The more precise the color mixing and light application, the better the integration with the background and sunlight.”
- Wang has been painting since he was 14. He graduated from one of China’s top art universities and started a wall painting business soon after.
- He told Ziniu News that his company mainly worked on oil painting, such as for walls and car bodies. Wang noted that while he also did simple body painting through his company with the help of his assistant, he only recently incorporated the environmental theme.
- An ecologically conscious painter, Wang focused his attention on a more “socially impactful” endeavor after his business suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Acknowledging the severity of environmental damage in recent years, Wang told Chinese media, “Through body painting, I want to express the relationship between humans and nature, showcasing the beauty of the natural world.”
How people reacted:
- Some Douyin users commented how Wang fooled them in his video, with one user writing in one of his posts, “I paused and kept staring until I lost sight of the person.”
- “Truly impressive, just blink your eyes and you can’t find the person anymore,” another comment read under the same post.
- “Why are other people’s hands so skilled, while my own hands are useless except for wiping my butt?” one Douyin user joked in another post.
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