After the Great Cultural Revolution, Wu Guanzhong published his theories of "Form, Colours and Aesthetics in Painting"and in the early 1980s even expended greater efforts in promoting the beauty of abstraction and formalism in painting. This concept drew much uproar among the conservatives in the fine arts arena then but it won approval from the young artists instead. In the 1980s, Wu Guanzhong also began working on ink and wash creations, pushing for the modernization of coloured ink. Perfectly merging the essence of western oil painting and eastern ink and wash, his painting achieved an entirely new outlook. Wu Guanzhong once said, "Ink and oil colors are just like the two edges of a pair of scissors that intends to tailor a new dress combining both East and West"

American art critic James Cahill spoke very highly of Wu Guanzhong's paintings. He felt, "Wu Guanzhong's paintings are filled with various features that best reflect the fa?ade of twentieth century Chinese art, i.e. the combining and mixing of eastern and western art. ...the biggest issue faced by twentieth century Chinese painters is how to preserve traditions and yet completely understand and digest both eastern and western cultures. In this respect, Wu Guanzhong is a leader."(Refer to James Cahill's "A Contemporary Chinese Painter" San Francisco, 1989).

However, the artist himself thinks that, "the material qualities of brushes, ink, Xuan paper, silk and coloring materials of traditional Chinese painting possesses unique advantages and also great limitations at the same time, being unable to cover huge surface areas. I explored alone for long periods in using several limited elements of dots, lines and planes, black, white and grey as well as red, yellow and green to construct ever-changing pictures and expand the boundaries of the paintings culminating in a display of spatial effects within the variably spaced combinations of dots, lines and planes."(refer to Wu Guanzhong's "Wu Guanzhong's Talk on Art: Wavering Between Emotion And Reason").

Claiming to be the modern version of Xu Xiake, Wu Guanzhong traveled around visiting quiet and secluded spots in search for beautiful scenery that he could put into his paintings. Self-professing, he said, "I only indulge in the unusual landscape and scenery and the diverse peoples and cultures, not just to record my touring in sketches nor make pictorial journals of my journeys. What I want to do is to gather objects and shapes and distil them into forms so that I can build my very own garden."Starting from the 1970s, the painter went to sketch in Yunnan for a time period spanning the 1980s all the way till the 1990s. However, the works were mainly constituted of oils. "Houses by the Dianchi Lake"is a rare piece of coloured ink on Yunnan's landscape. Dianchi was formerly called Diannan Pool, also known as Kunming Lake or Kunming Pond, situated at the southwest of Yunnan's Kunming City. Sandwiched on both banks by groups of mountains, blessed with beautiful landscape, breathtaking sights and a vast expanse of sparkling clear water dotted with sails of boats, the magnificent scenery of lakes and mountains has been a renowned tourist attraction since time immemorial. In the background of "Houses by the Dianchi Lake" washes of ink were used to make an elaborate description of the mountain shapes, while thick ink spots depicted houses, roofs and boat masts; in the foreground, light colors and empty spots created varying degrees of space in the meandering paths of the paddy fields; this was followed by lines encircling the composition and specks of people were filled with a sense of rhythm akin to musical notes. The fluid lines were the soul of this painting, depicting the elegant landscape in the locality.