Mao’s theme, the narrative of object, was first developed in the middle of the 1980s when he was contemplating Nature. At the time, Mao had the impulse to depict some sentient objects found in nature, such as the red earth and green trees on Gui Mountain in Yunnan. Later, Mao directly responded to the question of self-existence and social problems with themes such as, “people” and “private space”. In 1988, perhaps because Mao’s personal life had a new beginning, his “narrative of people” theme, was replaced by the symbolic “Parents Series”. Since the beginning of 1990, Mao has focused completely on his creation of “portraits of object”.