In 2002, Liu Xiaodong was invited to the Tunghai University Fine Arts Department as a visiting professor. Tunghai University wanted to revive the tradition of classical painting, which was increasingly disappearing in Taiwan, so they invited Liu, who was teaching at the China Central Academy of Fine Art, and is the world's most accomplished realist landscape painter, to direct the effort. In his two months in Taiwan, Liu travelled to Dadu Mountain for life studies, depicting the lives of ordinary Taiwanese people and the scenery of the surrounding countryside. "Scent of Grass" was one of the paintings he created during this time.

Liu Xiaodong mostly paints scenes and encounters from everyday life and the people he comes in contact with, using his keen eye to capture the state of individual existence in the current reality. His works are always rooted in his accumulated perceptions from immersion in city life, and as he reflects the common people in society, he also grants them recognition and understanding. This lends his works a thriving life force. Liu's signature social realist style is on full display in "Scent of Grass", where he has applied his uncannily refined perceptivity to present the scenery and character of Taiwan.