"An artist should first fill his stomach and then focus on his creation," Naruo explains with a smile.
When he returned to China in 2000, Naruo spent 50,000 yuan ($7,400) on half a hectare piece of land in his hometown to build a place where leading foreign and Chinese artists could live.
The idea was to provide these artists with inspiration from the local ethnic lifestyle and offer a better understanding of Naxi culture, while also allowing local artists and children to learn from them.
However, the project had to be abandoned for lack of funds.
Sometimes, after finishing painting, Naruo sits on the balcony of his 17th-floor flat, looking over the city, trying to write about his life with a Chinese ink pen. He hates computers, and especially the Internet. "There is too much useless information on the Internet, which will distract me from focusing on creation."
He avoids artists' salons - "The topic of discussion is women, not art," he says.
He seldom returns to Lijiang, and slams its commercialization. "The culture is in my mind. There is no need for me to go somewhere to look for it," he says.
By Wu Chen
Editor Wang Nan
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