Oil on canvas: “Return to Truth” by Yao Chongqi (41in X 41in), 2002

This painting was inspired by a photograph of a young Falun Gong practitioner. One day, a couple who practise Falun Gong looked around their home for their six-month-old baby boy and found him peacefully practising Falun Gong’s sitting meditation exercise. I was very touched and inspired by both the story and the photograph. I have always wanted to create a painting in the theme of returning to truthfulness. I don’t think If I paint an adult person in the painting, it would fully deliver the feeling of pureness. Children are very pure and innocent, and a naked baby enhances the feeling of natural pureness. Below is the original picture of the Falun Dafa practitioners' baby practising the sitting meditation that inspired the painting.