Artists in a Chinese village once known for churning out fakes have seen their livelihoods upturned by the pandemic and a global economic slowdown, forcing many to adapt by becoming original painters in their own right. Home to over 8,000 artists, southern China's Dafen has been cranking out near-perfect copies of timeless oeuvres for years. But sales began to dip after the 2008 global financial crisis, drying up altogether when China shut its borders due to the pandemic in 2020. "Artists are always feeling lonely. We struggle. That’s why we artists have the same feeling with van Gogh. I start to accept his arts, and use his style to create paintings of my own," says Deng Fei, an artist who began painting replicas of Vincent van Gogh works six years ago. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES