Chiu Ya-tsai's works predicates upon ideal archetypes in human nature, his portraits seem to accrue a certain public grandeur reminiscence of historical personages. Chiu's favored subject of poets and writers, the aesthetes and disaffected youths with privileged upbringing contrasts moderately with his personal upbringing, there is always a hint of the old world in Chiu's art as he believes that humanity can be best portrayed by the ancient confucius and the great figures from classic literatures such as Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky. Youth in Red is imbued with an air of nostalgia as the textured warm yellow backdrop is executed in brushstrokes that runs along the shape of the exterior of the central figure, which essentially extenuates the contours of the smooth and clear outline of the body. Simultaneously, the effect of these strokes in the background opens up the plain space delineating space. The velvety red sweater of the central melancholic figure appears to be indulging in a moment of deep rumination in the nest of his malaise with his hands placed firming on his waist. In essence, Chiu deliberately rid his central figures in his portraits of excessive facial emotions as he regards expressions as fickle with a tendency to deviate and fluctuates continuously. Instead, the artist strived to paint the inner spirit and temperament of his subjects. Chiu's figures could be deemed as idealized visions with essences of refinement as he reflects a narrative quality to these complex characters, much like the circular glasses that frames the thin eyebrows and moustache of the slender central figure that adds a hint of age and wisdom.

The artist yearned for orders within the composition and out of the chaos and the unreadable emotions of these memorable archetypes results in his unforgettable portraits. Chiu insisted that the spirit of his art is a derivative of the figure paintings dated to the Tang and Sung Dynasties. Similar to the ancient depictions of scholars and officials, the faces and gesture of his subjects are connotative of personality and mindset. In essence, Chiu's synthesizes traditions of Classical Chinese portraiture with Western elements, which results in parallels between his characters and those of Modigliani. It is Chiu Ya-tsai's old-fashioned faith in history and the wisdom of great men that prompt his paintings. Chiu's figures are truly portraits in that they are always poised and limited in body language, which work magnificently in portraying the precarious nature of man's being with a touch of mystery.