Xiao Hong’s recent works on Intellectual Youth Series combines the elements of contemporary and tradition onto one canvas. With portrait of an Intellectual Youth as the main subject of his painting, one can immediately identify with his subject - how China is now full of young, talented and capable youth to bring it to the next level of development. However, it is his use of scenes and fragments of reality from the past which is rather unique. He tums these scenes and fragments of reality into marks on the skin of a human face, treating them like moles or freckles in a portrait. molding them to the undulating contours of facial structure. Now, the combination of the two implores upon us a message that one should always have a root in traditions and the past.