Born to a farming family in Lujiang, Anhui province, Hong has long struggled with poverty and opposition from his family. His parents held the opinion that being a painter is not an honorable job from which he can make a living.

"I had once been on the verge of committing suicide when I had no money and nobody wanted my pictures," says Hong.

Hong says he didn't speak a word until he was 4 years old. People at his village thought he was mute. But he could draw with stones and twigs. During his teenage years, he drew vigorously. Almost everyone in his hometown has been a model for him, no matter their age or gender, says the artist.

Hong moved to Shanghai to continue his painting career. There were days when he had nothing to eat and sold no paintings. But Hong says he never stopped his lifelong pursuit. He was "born to paint".

Hong's paintings have both a hard and soft side.

When the Iraq War broke out in 2003, Hong watched the news on TV. The bombing, people crying and children running on the streets evoked his passion to paint his war series. Hong spent one year on his war series titled Who Is Making Terrorism?.

His obsession with the classical Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions led Hong to create a series of female figures from the novel, employing symbols, lines and bright colors to show the destiny of these women who are widely known in China.

The artist says he is on the road to creating a new painting style, different from the West and bearing Chinese features. Although his painting thesis presently has its skeptics, he says he will never stop exploring.