Children with autistic disorder paint their innocent world

A girl visits an exhibition featuring paintings from children with autistic disorder at the Li Keran Academy of Painting, April 2, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

Painting is a way for those who cannot orally express their feelings to let others know their thoughts.

A series of exhibitions, titled "Autistic or Artistic", featuring 5,000 paintings from children with autistic disorder were held across 100 cities in China on April 2, which will run through May 21.

The event was held in many Beijing art galleries, including the Li Keran Academy of Painting and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.

And artworks of another seven talented children, who also identify as being autistic, was exhibited at the National Art Museum of China on the same day.

Young artist Kang Rui, who was one of the seven, started to learn painting and calligraphy at the age of 10.

His mother said learning these skills has helped Kang to become calm and focused, especially while concentrating on a creative task.

"He draws on this and that, and can sometimes hold the brushes all day long," she said. "His skills are improving bit by bit; but overall, I'm just glad my boy can find happiness in this."

National Art Museum of China director Wu Weishan created a four-meter long master piece titled Spring, alongside five of the seven children.

"They may not be as good as a professional artist, but their works contain innocence," he said.

There are about 10 million people with autistic disorder in China. People's understanding of autism is still limited and many autistic children find it difficult to be accepted by the society.