Digging Tunnel is among the pieces created by artist Hu Yichuan on show at the ongoing exhibition that marks the 110th anniversary of Hu's birth at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Hu came to realize the importance of art as a tool to awaken people's minds and fulfill his ideal of social transformation. He later recalled in a short memoir in 1993 that Lu Xun often sponsored young artists in staging woodcut exhibitions. He himself also wrote prefaces for the shows.

Hu's productivity in art further erupted after he arrived in Yan'an, then the cradle of the Chinese Communist movement, in Shaanxi province in 1937. He made several iconic woodcuts and oil paintings that documented how people fought for national independence under the lead of the Communist Party of China.