Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou

Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou (simplified Chinese: 扬州八怪; traditional Chinese: 揚州八怪; pinyin: Yángzhoū Bā Guài) is the name for a group of eight Chinese painters active in the eighteenth-century, who were known in the Qing Dynasty for rejecting the orthodox ideas about painting in favor of a style deemed expressive and individualist.[1]

A sculpture in The "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou" Memorial Hall in Yangzhou depicting the eight eccentrics

The term was also used because they each had strong personalities at variance with the conventions of their own time. Most of them were from impoverished or troubled backgrounds. Still the term is, generally, more a statement about their artistic style than any social eccentricities.

The eight had an influence and association with painters like Gao Fenghan, as well as several others.