An artist who lives and works in an alien culture brings with him his own background and learning and must engage with a new and very different set of conditions and teachings. His situation has, at least temporarily, a "dipolar character'; from which various strategies are open to the artist as he seeks resolution. One tendency is for him to remain wedded to the art that is intrinsic to his origins and work by, in a sense, looking back. Here, the new ideas will ultimately always remain alien, and he will remain a foreigner in a foreign country. On the other hand, he can engage unreservedly with the totally new art. Or an artist can follow a course like the one pursued by Xiaobai Su, although very few have succeeded. He adopts a cautious, quiet, renunciation position, stepping back from himself and his previous life, but also keeping a certain distance from the new culture surrounding him. In this way, he observes both worlds from the outside. Taking a middle path, he seeks the best from both cultures, with the aim and conviction that ultimately only the macro world of things, the substance and the essence will last. (an excerpt from Prof. Nicole Beyer, "The Essence of the Pictures", Xiaobai Su Die Dynastie Der Farben, ZDF and Langen Foundation, 2009/2010, pp. 30- 32)