[Photo provided to China Daily]

In contrast, Lao Shu puts his paintings online, where any viewer can see the entire painting at once. In 2011 he opened Lao Shu Huahua on Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging website. He posts one painting a day there, and now has over 700,000 followers. Each painting is accompanied with a poem, either a sophisticated piece of self-mockery or a satire pointed at the social reality of modern greed.

He says he was driven to post his paintings on his blog originally because he "hoped that professional artists would comment on the work, either critically or providing inspiration. Unexpectedly, the white-collar community has reacted most warmly." The leisurely life depicted in the paintings coincides with their desire to find a release for their tensions.

In one piece that looks like the landscape painting from an ancient dynasty, Mr Minguo is standing on a hill, above a river. He carries a branch from a peach tree, full of blossoms.

The poem in the painting says: "Waiting till the spring breezes blow, I'll shoulder flowers to see you. I want to tell you all my regrets and my faults. Our love is everlasting in my heart."