Art in the time of loneliness: There's a deep and oddly logical reason this man is painting his Taiwan village in a riot of colour

An artist in Taiwan's Ruan Chiao village has taken it upon himself to ease the loneliness of elders by transforming local homes into a canvas of colour.

Ruan Chiao village, located at the foothills of Taiwan's central mountain range, is virtually devoid of young people. The vast majority of the population has moved out of the village to settle in the cities leaving the elders all by themselves, alone and restless. 

To bust the gloom, artist Wu Tsun-hsien is painting the town and breathing a new lease of life into the village which had been deprived of young energy, by attracting the photo-happy Instagram generation back to the village.

"These drawings attracted many tourists to come visit. The old people who were left here are no longer so bored. This was my biggest gain," he beams.

This led to some half a dozen graffiti villages in Taiwan adorning themselves with artwork in a bid to inject some life into rural places that have been emptied of youngsters.

Most of Wu Tsun-hsien’s paintings in the village are confined to rural pastiches or traditional symbols of good fortune. It is the family home where he really gets to express himself and which has quickly drawn a mass following on social media. Perched on a slope overlooking the village, the whole house is covered in images, many of which detail Wu Tsun-hsien’s politics.

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An avid believer that not enough is being done to tackle climate change, he has dedicated some paintings to spread awareness about environmental degradation. While some scenes show apocalyptic scenes of environmental devastation others are commentaries on social issues like gay marriage which he opposes or how the elderly are treated in an increasingly consumerist society.

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