[Photo provided to China Daily]

Lao Shu's real name is Liu Shuyong. He is a professor at the Culture & Media School at Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. A well-established art critic, Liu, 53, is noted for his sharp and insightful thinking. He is over 1.8 meters tall, with a deep voice and a shaved head. He likes to make fun of himself, saying, "I look like a pig butcher."

And yet, many in his audience say they think of him as a big man who also has a delicate and sensitive heart. He leads them to escape momentarily from the bonds of everyday life, to the dreamy, ideal realm inhabited by Mr Minguo.

In one painting, Mr Minguo holds a large cluster of wild flowers in his arms. He is standing alone, as though waiting for a spring breeze to come, walking slowly, perhaps toward home.

The poem that accompanies the painting reads "picking wild flowers, I put them in a vase, when it is at midnight, the room fills with the spring breeze".