People in east China's tourist city Zhou Zhuang have turned out to celebrate what would have been the 60th birthday of the late artist and director Chen Yifei.

Chen, who died of a gastric haemorrhage in Shanghai last Sunday, was known at home and abroad for his harmonious combination of traditional and modern techniques in the fields of oil painting, fashion design and advertising.

Fans in Zhou Zhuang held all kinds of commemorating activities on Thursday to express their thankfulness to this veteran painter, who introduced their hometown to the world as a beautiful water-town in his early paintings.

Chen hosted several art galleries in Washington, New York and Tokyo, and his landscape paintings featuring the geography south of the Yangtze River are widely collected.

He had recently taken up film directing, but unfortunately collapsed from overwork before his debut film "The Barber" was finished.   

(CRI.com April 16, 2005)