Two post-90s girls raise money for 'Happy-village' libraries

A Tale of Two-Cities charity art exhibition was held at Today Art Museum in Beijing on July 27th. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Featuring two teenaged girls' paintings, A Tale of Two-Cities charity art exhibition was held at Today Art Museum in Beijing on July 27th. Under the theme "Show your love, and draw a world", the exhibition was held to raise money for the construction of three Happy-village libraries in Hebei province.

Having selected 60 of their paintings to sell to the public, post-90s girls Liu Xinyi and Zhan Lan hoped to contribute to the public welfare through their own efforts. They called on everyone at any age to volunteer with the charity, and one may benefit when helping others.

Jiang Kun, the vice chairman and secretary general of the China Literature and Art Foundation; Cai Ming, the famous performance artist, and Gu Guoqing, president of the China Film International Promotion Center, spoke at the exhibition. Jiang Kun also contributed 15,000 books to the three Happy-village libraries on behalf of the China Literature and Art Foundation.

Prominent Chinese painter Fang Lijun praised the Liu and Zhan as "the most beautiful young girls". Meanwhile, celebrities such as director Du Qifeng and stars Sun Li, Zhong Hanliang and Gu Tianle also bought the two girls' works.

Liu Xinyi lives in New York while Zhan Lan lives in Beijing. Being close friends, they share painting as a hobby. They started to plan this exhibit at the beginning of 2014. After preparation, including designing brochures, invitation cards and the like, they realized their goal of holding a charity exhibition.

Happy-village Libraries is a pure charity project initiated by book lovers, which aims to build libraries in primary and middle schools in poor areas. The purpose of these libraries is to promote happiness, kindness and participation.