After the end of the Opium War in China in 1842, Shanghai opened itself to trade with the outside world. A little after that, the Taiping Rebellion of 1850-64, which took place in southern China and Nanjing, funneled into the metropolis artists and scholars seeking refuge.

The result was a city with a diverse mixture of Chinese, Western and Japanese cultures, and one whose newly rich merchants and middle class started to emulate the upper classes by decorating their homes and offices with works of art. But Shanghai's nouveau riche did not seek out the classic, philosophically high-minded painting of traditional China, seeking instead colorful and vibrant images of flowers and individuals that were readily understood without bookish learning.

Consequently, what had been revered subjects with centuries of intellectual patina in traditional highbrow circles became, in the Shanghai context, fuel for popular culture. The new works carried enough expressiveness, individualism and innovation to usher in a period of artistic modernism executed within Chinese traditions that paralleled urban and industrial changes taking place.