A local woman in Foshan, Guangdong Province, poses for a picture with a public artwork created by teachers and students from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. Photo: Liu Caiyu/GT

A quirky square-faced Superman stands near a bend in the road, while just an arm's length away his wooden partner, Supergirl, keeps him company. The duo are just one part of the numerous pieces of public art on display in a small town in South China.

Located in Foshan, Guangdong Province, the rural town of Jun'an, the well-known ancestral hometown of Bruce Lee, is going through an artistic transformation with the help of teachers and students from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA).

Speaking to the Global Times, Zhang Xinjie, the secretary of the Jun'an Party committee, explained that the public art was meant to display the spirit of the town and show how it dances to a different tune than other small towns throughout China.

"When it comes to the construction of a town, the first thing you have to do is reveal the spirit of the place," Zhang said.

"With the help of artists, you can make its charm visible."

Zhang said, "Usually, there is a lack of thinking, for many local governments, that they choose to work with architecture institutes who are only good at giving out project blueprint - they can only be called 'drawing porters' - or with construction teams who have zero knowledge of what design is."

Public art is "tangible and even open to being changed," said He Wei, an architecture and associate professor with the CAFA School of Architecture.

A work by He, which transforms an abandoned water-intake pipe from the 1980s into a bridge, has been welcomed by many young lovers and close friends. Titled Love Locks Bridge, the work was inspired by the Pont des Arts footbridge over the Seine in central Paris.

The bridge connecting two empty houses together, one of which has been painted entirely in pink so it may act as a canvas for graffiti, has become a major destination for couples and friends looking to memorialize their feelings by locking a padlock on the bridge.

"The identity of both artist and viewer is interchangeable," said He, commenting on the work.

Transparent glasses filled with different colored water hang from a frame. From underneath, these bottles look like a sparkling rainbow.

"A good piece of art allows local residents to easily understand its meaning. We turn the most ordinary stuff into something interesting," Li Zhen, the design director of the City Design School at CAFA, told the Global Times.

"Public art is not just for people living in cities but for everyone," Zhang said.

 "In addition to infrastructure, the process of urbanization should also include a certain life attitude."

As township secretary, Zhang is also working on other future projects such as the building of schools and public spaces. His goal is to bring people together by creating a better living environment. 

"The perfect living place, in my eyes, is a countryside that functions as as a city."