Liu Xiaodong is a representative figure of neorealist painting. In the early 1990s, Liu mainly painted his friends, or at least acquaintances. By the mid-nineties, market factors led him to shift his creative focus: blind people walking the streets, card players on trains, sleeping migrant workers, all manner of boring, everyday people. He had considered painting the newly wealthy, but he gave up rather quickly. "Rich people are hard to understand, and hard to come into contact with. They are protected by a lot of people, and not very amenable to exposing themselves. I'd rather paint among the common folk." All of his works focus on the common man.

This scene of bathing and back-scraping in a public bathhouse is exceedingly common for mainland Chinese. To this day, though most people now have hot water heaters in their homes, many people across China still make a habit of frequenting public baths. The bathhouse is not just a place for bathing. It represents a way of life, a kind of public memory, even a place for social interaction.

Liu Xiaodong excels at the visual depiction of everyday life. Under his brush, the most mundane scenes take on the charm of permanence. That is the magical power of art.