A painter wins popularity on short video platforms by freeze-framing heartwarming moments

A man begins skipping along a street in response to a happy young girl who skips and jumps past him (COURTESY PHOTO) 

A man was walking along a street one day when a happy-looking young girl went by him skipping and jumping along to a rhythm. Swayed by her happiness, the man couldn't help imitating her and began skipping ahead. At that moment, the middle-aged man looked as joyful as a child. The seconds-long short video is loved by many Internet users.

While most viewers just watched the video for fun, one viewer, Qiu Jinpeng, recorded the touching moment with his paintbrush.

Whenever he discovers a heartwarming short video, Qiu paints the scenes that impress him the most, and, with the consent of the video's producers, posts these artworks on social media platforms, namely, Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu. "It's like a pictorial video review that incorporates my feelings and understandings of the video," Qiu told Beijing Review.

With a fairytale-like illustrating style, Qiu has managed to make these cute life moments even cuter, which has earned him a growing number of followers. His followers have nicknamed him the "capturer of loveliness," and some of them confide that his artworks make them find life more beautiful.

A granny lies back on a swing while chatting with her old best friend, who is swinging next to her (COURTESY PHOTO)

Happiness is contagious

"Happiness turns out to be contagious," is the caption Qiu used for his recreation of the man skipping. That single post has received more than 20,000 comments so far on Douyin alone. The comments include people's feelings on his painting as well as some shared childhood memories brought back by the video.

Qiu first began creating this type of works in September 2022. Since then, he has created nearly 200 of them and every single one tells a story of ordinary Chinese people.

The subjects of his paintings include a security guard who waltzes alone in a park among falling leaves as if nobody is watching, a young boy who sits in front of an electric fan admiring his new wind-blown hairstyle, a granny lying back on a swing chatting with her old best friend, who is swinging next to her, and a female volunteer in Chongqing's wildfire rescue service who impressed people with a red bowtie on her helmet.

"You have an observant eye and an ingenious hand to discover and create good things," "It's so healing! The paintings convinced me that life is worth living," "Your paintings should be included in textbooks"… Comments such as these have been encouraging Qiu to keep going.

Although he majored in painting in university and possesses a mastery of painting skills, Qiu is not a full-time painter. He works for an organization that aims to popularize art in northeast China's Jilin Province. The organization encourages people to enrich their intellectual and cultural lives by producing art and literature. 

The job requires him to go into the midst of common people, learn how they live their lives and find inspirations for artistic creation. "Painting short videos provides me with a new angle from which to understand people and make them more interested in art, which is my job," Qiu said.

Through these efforts, Qiu is actually painting a collective portrait of Chinese people, with a focus, as he has said, on their optimism, diligence and kindness.

"We can see from the videos that people, young or old, are living their lives with passion in a prosperous and vibrant China. We can see people from all walks of life, either a heroic firefighter or a diligent deliveryman, are working hard to fulfill their duties. We can also see people are ready to help others," Qiu said.

In the beginning, Qiu had to search for heartwarming short videos on his own. But as people become more familiar with his artworks, they have volunteered to share interesting moments with him. Some said in their comments that whenever they see heartwarming videos, they think of Qiu. Some even send clips of their loved ones to Qiu, hoping that he will paint them.

"My new role has brought great changes to my life," Qiu said, "As my followers increase, I feel a stronger sense of mission and know exactly what I should do every morning when I wake up. My life has become busier but more exciting."

Qiu says that he is an introvert, and his introversion seems to make him more adept at capturing people's subtle emotions and affectations, and the subtleties in his work strike a chord with his audience.

Encouragement from the public

To date, Qiu's videos have earned him more than 2 million followers across social media platforms. It speaks volumes about the fact that good content leads to huge traffic in the age of short videos. The traffic has in turn accelerated the spread of good content.

Thanks to the development of short video platforms, 36-year-old Qiu has ultimately had his childhood dream come true.

Keen on painting since his childhood, Qiu chose to study oil painting in college. However, after graduation, he had to quit his passion because he was unable to earn a sufficient salary from it. "After I opened a restaurant, I didn't paint for almost two years," Qiu recalled. "I hung one of my previous paintings on the wall of the restaurant and one day a customer asked me where I bought it. Discovering I had painted it, the customer was surprised and encouraged me to keep painting."

Qiu has continued to paint in his spare time since then. Now with his paintings becoming so widely recognized, his persistence has been rewarded.

Publishing houses have approached Qiu about publishing comic books illustrated by him and China's leading media outlets such as People's Daily and China Central Television have also sought his cooperation to create works that are close to people and their daily lives.

Traffic from China's online masses is a form of encouragement for Qiu. "For me, the traffic is not just cold numbers. It is the trace left by people in the real world who have browsed my videos, liked them and commented on them. It reflects people's appreciation and recognition of my work, which encourages me to move forward," he said.

Qiu believes that good content should be spread in an innovative way. To bring inspiration to more people, Qiu decided to release his works for public use, which means people can download the works for free if not for commercial use.

Looking forward, Qiu said he hopes to publish a picture book to retain these precious moments and warm the hearts of more people.