"The Hundred Layers of Ink series displays neither skill nor imagery or personality and painting here rather is a way of contemplation than a means of representation".
[3] Both, Eastern spirituality, in particular Daoism, and Romanticism are present in Yang's oeuvre on a conceptual and on an aesthetic level.
His Hundred Layers of Ink series (1989 - 1999), or later works, like Scroll of Secret Merit (2004), or again Double View - Crosss (2014) show the artists interest in aesthetic crudeness and immediacy, as well as his quest for self-sublimation.
The choice of technique, but also of critical subjects and his iconoclastic attitude shows Yang Jiechang's affinity to his local heritage.
Works in this technique comprise Crying Landscape (2003), Tomorrow Cloudy Sky (2005), Stranger than Paradise (2009-2016), Tale of the Eleventh Day (2011-2022), as well as various self-portraits.
Among the images broadcast by the mass media over and over again, only one appeared authentic to the artist: A young man running from the collapsing twin towers and shouting "Oh, my god".