Chinese PaintingTraditional Chinese painting is an important part of the 5,000 year old Chinese civilization. This art, with brushes, ink, silk and xuan paper as main tools, and lines and dots as structure, has profound tradition and unique ethnic style. In the 20th century Chinese painting was in the process from tradition to modernity, reflecting its complexity of assimilation and absorption of Western art and clashes and blending between Chinese and Western arts.