A recent conversation with the owner of a small restaurant near the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA) revealed a story of transition, community, and temporary art.
The current owner, whom I’ll call Auntie, and her husband took over the shop two years ago. The space has a history of its own. It was once a Northeastern Chinese dumpling restaurant, whose original owner moved back to his hometown. After that, it was briefly a takeout-only fast-food spot before falling into their hands.
“We completely renovated the place,” Auntie explained. “There was no proper dine-in area before; it was just a space for takeouts.”
Our conversation naturally turned to the art students from GAFA, as I had noticed painted walls. Auntie confirmed she knows many of them, even belonging a large online group chat with over 500 students who are regular customers.
She fondly recalled a specific student, a tall, slender boy from Jiangxi with curly hair, who painted a mural on her wall last year. He worked on it for about a month. In lieu of charging him a fee, Auntie simply asked that he occasionally buy a meal, which he did.
“He started with a small section and then expanded it, covering a large part of that wall,” she said. The mural even included a portrait of Auntie herself, which he re-painted twice until he was satisfied.
When I asked if she had photos of the finished work, she sighed lightly. She no longer has them. Her phone broke, and she lost his contact. The student, likely now a busy final-year, never sent the pictures as he had promised.
The physical evidence of that time is mostly gone. The painting supplies he left behind—a bottle of special ink, some brushes—were eventually cleared away. The mural itself is now painted over.
It’s a simple story, but it reflects the fleeting nature of these small, human connections. For a month, the shop was his canvas. Now, all that remains is Auntie’s memory of the tall, curly-haired boy who left a temporary mark on her walls before moving on, like the businesses and people who came before him.
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