These books included the literary classics of famous writers like Lao Tzu, as well as Chinese translations of major western authors, poets and statesman such as written works by Abraham Lincoln.

[3] Between 1959 and 1995 Huang Xiang was imprisoned six times, spending a total of twelve years in Chinese prisons and labor camps due to the contents of his poetry as well as his advocacy for human rights and the fight for democracy.

Also in 1978, Huang Xiang participated in the Democracy Wall, an event where the Chinese public protested against political and social issues in China.

On January 1, 1979, Huang Xiang displayed on that wall an open letter to the then-President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, calling on him to put the issue of human rights in China on the international political agenda.

Later in the year, Huang Xiang was then summoned to Beijing by the Secretary-General of the Communist Party to endorse the policies of Deng Xiaoping in front of the international press corps, which he refused.

Due to continued persecution, Huang Xiang and his wife, Zhang Ling, were forced to leave China and were eventually granted asylum in the United States.

As of 2012, over ninety of these portraits featuring subjects such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Vincent van Gogh, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi have been completed.