Living in China during this critical time[2] shaped his worldview in terms of his views on art, human values and morality.
[2] During his time at school, he met Li Xianting (who would later be a famous critic) and was introduced to watercolors, oil paints and ink.
He made a decision to go to Hebei Light Industry Technology school to study ceramics for three years.
Instead of having an intellectual job in the ceramics department, he prepared himself to take the entrance exam to enroll at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.
[2] Due to the economy and other difficult cultural issues, painters wanted to create a utopia where they could freely paint and express themselves.
At the time, painters like Fang Lijun had to face many obstacles and challenges, particular financial issues.
[2] Fang Lijun made a large number of works featuring the subject "bald heads".
[2] Under the influence of his family and friends, his art expresses the freedom, the integrity in two different settings: traditional and modern era, and the will of making a change.
In an interview, he explained that water is helping him convey a message about his feeling and his voice about the truth and what is going in Chinese society.
[2] Because art projects require different color immersion, Fang uses different plates and a set order of printing on different adjoined scrolls.
There is a sense of loss in direction which represents the youths and artists in China who are uncertain about the future.
Some other critics view the large figure as a Christ-like image because Fang Lijun is influenced by Western culture and style.
In this painting, Chairman Mao is considered a bright leader who will bring joy and peace to the country.
The artist intentionally puts more focused details on the Chairman character to emphasise his role as a big brother or father that is pointing or leading people to a better place.
Because life is too stressful or too complicated, death becomes the best solution to escape from this world to go to a more peaceful place such as heaven.
[3] There were many new major painters such as Fang Lijun, Liu Wei, Song Yonghong, who participated and helped with this event.
In this event, Fang Lijun and other new painters introduced new ideas on society, painting and art critique.
His paintings in this exhibition mostly focused on the national identity, cultural change and other related issues through stereotypical bald head men, family style and people's faces.
In October 2002, when Rolf Lauter became director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim, he met Alexander Ochs,[6] an art dealer from Berlin, and asked him about showing young artists from Asia, especially China, with his support in the museum.
In 2003, Lauter presented loans from Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun and Yang Shaobin in his second re-presenting of the collection in a temporary exhibition on the subject of "SelfSpace" with 19th century portrait sculptures by Maillol and Rodin, light boxes by Jeff Wall and works by Alex Katz.
Especially the work "SARS" (later named "Untitled") by Fang Lijun, a large-format woodcut, attracted attention.
Lauter wrote in his introductory text: "Opposed to the pictures by Katz is a work composed of seven printed scroll paintings in the size 400 x 854 cm by the Chinese artist Fang Lijun.
In addition to a rising tendency towards "de-individualisation" of people, his work labeled "SARS" also addresses the "glowing" danger of the virus for the crowds in China"[7] Unfortunately, Lauter‘s purchase request was not fulfilled in Mannheim at the time.