A charity campaign featuring artworks created by people with mental illnesses generated a massive response on Chinese social media last week. But for Zhangjiagang Art Gallery, using art to help those with mental health issues is far from a new idea.

The gallery in East China's Jiangsu province has been giving free art lessons to children with autism for more than two and a half years.

According to Chen Sanshi, the gallery's curator, the lessons have helped make "some dramatic changes" in the children’s lives.

Xiao Yuan (not his real name) is one of those children. Diagnosed with autism and attention deficit disorder at a young age, the 11-year-old used to be incapable of sitting still for one minute in class before he started coming to the gallery.

Now, however, he can attend classes like normal with his friends and he has developed a passion for painting.

The lessons have also helped Xiaoyuer, another local child, break out of the isolation imposed by his autism. He can now communicate comfortably with people face-to-face and take part in outdoor activities like shopping and swimming.

In total, eight children in Zhangjiagang have benefitted from the lessons since the gallery launched the program, according to Chen.

The gallery is hoping that people's increasing awareness of autism and other mental health issues in China will allow it to expand the program in the future.

There are more than 2 million children with autism under the age of 14 in China, according to government statistics released in 2015.

Yet it is only recently that campaigns aiming to raise awareness of the condition have started to break through into mainstream society.

However, a campaign launched by Chinese tech company Tencent via its online charitable platform on Aug 28 may be a game-changer for mental health charities.

The campaign featured paintings created by people with a range of mental health problems, and invited users to make a small donation to download a copy of one of the paintings.

The paintings quickly went viral, with around 5.8 million people downloading them. The campaign eventually raised over 15 million yuan ($2.3 million).

Beetle Has a Hard Shell by Hehe, a child with autism who attends the art classes offered by Zhangjiagang Art Gallery. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]