[2][3] Li returned to Guangzhou in 1932, after the Mukden Incident broke out, and served once again as a teacher at the art school where he had studied.
[4] In June 1934, Li founded the Modern Woodcut Society at the Guangzhou Art School with an initial membership of 27.
[4][5] He produced many woodcuts to protest against the invasion by the Japanese army and the decaying government that was led by Chiang Kai-shek.
[6]: 467–468 The woodcut depicts the front view of a "taut, muscular, and naked male body, bound and blindfolded".
[8] Despite Li not officially joining the Chinese Communist Party until 1953, his work had been associated with the leftist cause for many years.