The first International Exhibition of Sports Humor Paintings kicked off in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday. Organizers aim to raise public enthusiasm for sports as they welcome the upcoming 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022, slated for Sept 10 to 25.

More than 3,000 paintings from 48 countries and regions — one-third from foreign countries, including the United States, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Montenegro and Serbia — were received in the last quarter of 2021.

A total of 300 works were selected, of which 30 were judged excellent by experts from the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Academy of Art and others.