These days, the gigantic monuments and boulevards and ambitions of Beijing make the news every week.

"Isn't it amazing what a totalitarian government can do?" rave conservative Western pundits. "The Chinese government decides to do something" – build a dam, knock down an ancient city and build a replica in its place, colonize its deserts and grasslands with Han peasants who have no idea how to farm them – "and they just….DO it!"  These may be marvels if you don't have to live with them. Or their consequences.

At any rate, Chinese artists dream just as big – if not bigger – than their American counterparts.

And they've got the brushes to prove it.

Giant horsehair brush in Beijing's 798 arts district

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