Starting from 1986, she finished one watercolor painting every two days. This pace was kept until 2003 when she finally had 3,000 ladies on her pictures. Now she is in her fifties.
She is an artist with talent, a gift inherited from her family, but she sought a breakthrough to her father's traditional way.
Fan Ping came up with the idea of painting 3,000 royal palace ladies when in 1986, she saw a poem that stimulated her sympathy for the fate of the women in ancient China. "It depicted that the Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty had 3,000 consorts, but he only loved Yang Guifei. I felt pity about the other 2,999 women, so I decided to picture every one of them."
She paid much more than time and energy to finish this cause. Her family did not always support her. The basic-level economic condition made it harder for her to buy all the materials needed to continue painting, though she never ceased doing it.
Now she lived alone in a public rental apartment with one bedroom, cheap rent but poor facilities.
"People must achieve one thing incredible in their lifetime, if only so that you can say you had a meaning life," she said.
She looked satisfied with the current living. "I often hang out with my friends. We go to parks for leisure, and we love to go to some delicate restaurants. I want to do some paper cutting for my friends, too," she said.
Fan Ping can not only paint, but she is also now a teacher of papercutting at the local community, teaching people with zero experience. "The community gives me 200 yuan a week for keeping the lesson as a community service. I did this for pleasure, as well as finding people who can inherit my handcraft."
See the video to learn about the story of Fan Ping, a woman who worked, one could say sacrificed her whole life making art.