A work by Peng Wei. [Photo/China Daily]

So at Wang's organization, children are introduced to the likes of Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte and Antoni Gaudi, artists whose greatness is matched only by their power of imagination - the price most people pay for growing up.

In my case, I never had the opportunity to be exposed to those wonderfully mischievous masterpieces as a child. However, that glimpse through the door opened another world for me. It was my artistic initiation.

For the next seven or eight years I kept doing pencil drawings (I also painted watercolors and oils, but the blacks and grays never lost their charm for me) until heavy schoolwork prevented me from doing so.

Today, more clearly than with any painting I have ever done, I remember the black shine extending from the outer side of my little finger to the side of my palm. It was a shine resulting from hours of drawing, during which I would occasionally rub the paper with the side of my pencil-holding hand, to create the interplay between light and shadow. It was the painting process that matters above all else, a process that injected joy into my little heart.

So a few years ago I was flabbergasted on reading that a few renowned Chinese artists had condemned the strict pencil sketch training undergone by almost all children - usually between age 12 and 18 - in China who hope to pursue a higher art education.