FREE TALK: Professionals, parents and teachers share views on art and education during a salon at the Academy of Art & Design at Tsinghua University in Beijing on April 2 (LI FANGFANG)

The sixth annual exhibition for autistic people opened at Tsinghua University in Beijing on April 2, World Autism Awareness Day.

About 400 artistic works are being exhibited until April 7. The exhibition aims at establishing connections between professional artists and autistic people, offering on one hand an opportunity for artistic introspection, and developing careers of talented autistic people on the other.

"We hope that they are artistically recognized by their achievements not the tag of 'autism', " Zhang Yanbo, lead planner of the exhibition, told Beijing Review.

Children with autism typically exhibit impaired social interaction abilities marked by repetitive behaviors and narrow interests. Many of them cannot express their feelings through language or control their emotions.

Li Mu, a professor from the Academy of Art & Design Tsinghua University (LI FANGFANG)

After the opening ceremony, professionals of art, medical science, psychology and natural sciences shared views on art and education of the autistic children. Participating artists believed that autistic people's isolation from the madding crowd could actually lead to "inner peace" when doing creative painting. They called for parents to protect their kids' creativity, which might be constrained by social norms.

Jia Meixiang, an expert on autism, doesn't share the opinion. She says parents should guide kids to interact with society by helping them form necessary habits, which she doesn't think are contradictory to their artistic futures.