"Birds flown away with a tree". When the environment gets polluted, the birds fly away with their home. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A battle against the commercial tide

As the originator of fish bone painting, Lin is the only fish bone painting artist in China, and perhaps the world.

In the past twenty years, Lin has been consistently devoting his time and money to creating his artwork.

He's fanatic about collecting fish bones. He told China Daily Website that he once spent 30 thousand yuan to purchase a fish – just for its bones.

Many of his friends and relatives think he is crazy, which, Lin does not deny. "Now I realized that to turn waste into treasure should be the basis of my creation," Lin said.

In Lin's workshop, the fish bones are collected and categorized according to their shape and color. Some of the fish bones are shining white, but some appear smoked yellow. When asked why the difference, Lin said it's because of pollution.

"Because of water pollution, the fish become ill, their bones have changed color, some even changed shape," Lin said. He said that such changes have made him more determined to carry on his mission of creating fish bone paintings.

Several of his works, including "Thirst", "The Other Shore" and "Birds Flown with the tree" are all works that reflect environmental problems.

"I hope my paintings could make viewers realize how severe the pollution problem is," Lin said. "I have no say in politics, and I cannot change a social problem alone, but I can at least call for people to care for our environment," he said.

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