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. Liu once said: "I was born in Liaoning province, which is a small town. I grew ip like a wild child, hanging out in crowd, and like to look at people." 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.

In 2002, Liu Xiaodong was invited to the Tunghai University Fine Arts Department in Taiwan as a visiting professor. Tunghai University in Taiwan 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 one of the world's most accomplished realist landscape painters, to direct the effort. "Betel Nut Beauty" is based on the theme of a young woman, wearing revealing clothing and selling betel nuts along roadsides in Taiwan. Liu's signature social realist style is on full display in this painting, where he has applied his uncannily refined perceptivity to present a unique sight of Taiwan.