High-earning artist
At an auction in Hong Kong last December, Zhang Xiaogang became China's highest-earning painter.
Auction houses regularly see art-lovers pay vast sums for paintings by world-famous artists like Van Gogh and Monet, but until recently no one ever expected a living Chinese artist to earn mega-dollars for his work. At the auction at Christie's in Hong Kong, Zhang's painting Bloodline: Big Family No. 2 sold for HK$26.4 million.
Watch out Monet, van Gogh and other old masters - you now have a living Chinese rival.
Beginnings
Zhang was born in the city of Kunming in Yunnan province in 1958. As he was growing up, he witnessed the vast social and political upheaval of the Cultural Revolution.
His experiences of these turbulent times have had an influence on the subjects and style of his painting.
