ON STAGE: The Lemon Tree Six, a hip-hop group consisting of six migrants working in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, perform in Beijing on January 26 (CFP)

Wang Gaojie, a migrant worker in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, never thought his series of cartoon drawings could be such a hit.

Wang's comic strip series, A Young Migrant Worker's Life, features a plump young man with tangled hair as he goes through trials and travails as an itinerant rural worker in the coastal city.

"This is me," Wang told Beijing Review. "I told my story through this character."

For love of ink

In one of his comic strips, Wang looks back on his first impression of Ningbo. "It was in 2005, shortly after the Chinese Lunar New Year," a cartoon Wang recalls with a bundle in hand. "It was cold and snowed heavily in March."

"Almost eight years have passed. Ningbo has changed a lot and so have I," a wide-eyed Wang stands beside a heavier built and bearded Wang smoking a cigarette. "That's me in 2012."

"It is very cute," said netizen Douer. "I never saw cartoons based on the story of migrant workers. It is a very interesting approach to this group."

Wang, 27, left his home village in central China's Henan Province in 2005 and has worked in Ningbo ever since, but he didn't leave behind his childhood hobby. Although he works 10-hour days, he still finds the spare time to indulge in his love of drawing.

"When I was a kid, I loved imitating the black-and-white illustrations in the textbooks, including landscapes, animals and people's portraits," Wang said. Japanese manga series Doraemon is among his early inspirations.

Despite his love of fine arts, Wang eschewed university and went to Ningbo with a fellow villager at 18. He has held more than 10 different jobs in the city and now works as warehouse keeper in a light bulb factory.

Wang's coworkers thought he was crazy for spending his hard-earned money on a used desktop computer in 2009.

"I am very introverted and don't like playing cards or chatting," Wang said. "I draw cartoons for fun. This might seem strange to my previous workmates.

In one of the pictures, Wang shows the character drawing excitedly under the watchful yet disdainful eyes of an elderly man. "Deep in my heart I dream of being a cartoonist," wrote Wang next to the picture.

The sudden exposure by the media for Wang since last October is more of a bother than help. "I am clearly aware that my drawing skills are far from being good," Wang said. "I hope I can get professional training, get more time to draw, and publish my own graphic novel in the future."

Garage painter

Forty-three-year-old Chen Jianhui, in order to get more time on Chinese ink painting, quit a 4,000-yuan-per-month ($642) job eight years ago to work as a garage keeper in Shanghai for only 1,300 yuan ($209) a month.

Coming from a remote village in southwestern Sichuan Province, Chen has dreamed of being a painter since he was a kid. "I drew everything that I could see and didn't stop," said Chen, who couldn't finish high school due to poverty.

In Shanghai, Chen worked as a porter and later a construction worker. "The pay wasn't bad, but I had to work very long hours and couldn't squeeze another minute into painting," said Chen. "It was a big pain."