"They have not received much schooling and have pinned all their hopes on me," Sun explains. Her parents paid 15,000 yuan (2,470.7 US dollars) for her to attend painting training.

Shao Yunfei, painting teacher and the owner of Sun's training school, started running the courses in 2000. However, Shao estimates that only 10 percent of the students he teaches have a passion for painting.

"Most do not have any basic painting knowledge and they just have to start from scratch," he says.

During the six months of cram training with Shao, students put their academic courses aside and paint from dawn until dark in the hope of picking up the skills to get a high score in the art exams.

He has found that to realize their college dreams, even those with no natural artistic ability are prepared to strive to learn various skills even though they are unlikely to become a real artist or star.

Yu Miao, another art college applicant, says 20 of the 45 students in her high school class are receiving intensive art training courses so as to apply for art colleges.

For these students, they find it is easier to study presiding, performing or dancing than to keep their minds on academic courses, according to Tai Xinran, a teacher at the art school of Northeast Dianli University in Jilin Province.

A report on China's art education industry released in May showed that the number of art colleges in the country has surged from 597 in 2002 to 1,679 in 2013, while high school students applying for such colleges have risen from 32,000 to approximately one million during the past decade.