Darcy Fisher

GRAFFITI is a not just writing on a wall. To many artists it is an outlet for expressing their artistic abilities.

The graffiti scene on the mainland began in major cities like Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing in the late 1980s as part of the hip-hop culture that became popular in China. With a growing number of young graffiti artists and fashionable spray paints from Hong Kong, Shenzhen soon saw graffiti booming as a type of urban art.

Shenzhen is said to have the longest graffiti wall in China. The wall is in Honghu Park in Luohu District near Dongmen and measures 300 meters in length.

Popular places for graffiti in Shenzhen include Honghu Park in Luohu District and Shahe Road West in Nanshan District.

Well-known graffiti artists in Shenzhen are YYY, NAN, Doubleyiew, Yang Zhen, TAM, MCG, Deng Chunru, Lin Xupan, Zhang Shuang, Huang Xuedong, Li Shibin and Wei Zi.

Each graffiti artist has his or her own signature style, involving color, design and symbolic meanings. A lot of graffiti styles are influenced by New York and European countries such as France, Germany and Sweden.

YYY, a 23-year-old Guangdong native who declined to reveal his real name, is one of the best-known graffiti artists on the Chinese mainland for his unique style, which uses traditional Chinese clouds with abstract letters to achieve a magical expression.

“I like using Chinese style to help spread Chinese culture,” says YYY.

Among Shenzhen’s foreign graffiti artists is Frenchman Ceet Douchafleur, who runs a studio named La Ruche<2022>Design Labs in OCT. In his studio, he uses his talent as a graffiti artist to create graphics for products such as shoes, skateboards and even clothing for brands like Prada, Ovlab and Adidas.

“Using graffiti in fashion makes a connection between street art and fashion,” says Douchafleur.

In Shenzhen, graffiti in unauthorized public places is not allowed by law and offenders can be fined 200 yuan (US$29) and ordered to cover the graffiti with white paint.