On the western plateau of China, there are many sacred snow-capped mountains. The Bayan Har Mountains, the Tanggula Mountains, and the Himalayas all are magnificently situated here. The Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Yarlung Zangbo River, which gave birth to the Chinese civilization and the Indian civilization among the four ancient civilizations in the world, all originate in here. Believers and people under the snow mountains devoutly worship them as sacred mountains on a pure land; climbers trying to conquer snow peaks forge ahead boldly under the guidance of the spirit of the snow mountains. The beautiful natural land forms, rich cultural resources, and profound history of the western plateau have attracted the attention of literati and artists from all over the world. Painters are even more fascinated about and enchanted by the picturesque landscape and mysterious tone of the western plateau. They show their awe for the majestic mountains and rivers in the painting language and express their gratitude to the snow-capped plateau for nourishing meadows, lakes, and rivers.

In retrospect of the development of traditional Chinese landscape painting, from being an subset of painting in the Wei and Jin Dynasties to an independent genre in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and from the prosperity in the Song and Yuan Dynasties to the diversity in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, landscape painting have been expressed in a way from objective observation to subjective expression and finally becomes a method of artistic creation for scholars to express their sentiment. In the early 20th century, with the influx of modern Western thoughts and the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese painting traditions quickly developed towards reality observation and national innovation, marking the start of the modern transformation of traditional landscape painting.

After the founding of the PRC, there was an increasing cry for landscape painting to pay attention to reality and walk into life. This demand soon stimulated large-scale landscape painting sketching activities and group development——A group led by Zhao Wangyun and Shi Lu inherited and carried forward the literary and artistic tradition of Yan'an revolution and gave birth to the “"Chang'an Painting School" known for a bold and unrestrained realist style. Represented by Fu Baoshi, Qian Songyan, and Ya Ming, the “New Jinling School of Painting” became a successful model during this period for traveling 23,000 miles to sketch realistic representations of traditional pen and ink 

A look at the snow paintings in the past dynasties reveals those created by Wang Wei, Zhao Songxue, Huang Gongwang, and Shen Zhou based on the Jiangnan landscape, by Jing Hao and Guan Tong based on the Taihang Mountain in the Central Plains, and by Fan Kuan and others based on the landscape in the Zhongnan Mountain in Qinling. However, Chinese paintings of snow based on the snow mountains of the western plateau were few and far between. In modern and contemporary times, with convenient transportation and increasing integration of ethnic groups, many painters began to be inspired by the snow-capped mountains in the western plateau and create new Chinese landscape paintings centering round the theme of snow-capped plateau. From Zhang Daqian, Wu Zuoren, Wu Guanzhong, and Chang Shuhong, who were known for snow mountain paintings full of flowing artistic conception, to Nima Zeren, Yu Zhixue, Li Bing, Li Xiaoke, Li Jinyuan, Qiu Xiaoqiu, Guan Mingang, Liu Langtao, Zhou Yuguo, and Duo Erji, who created brand-new schemes on the basis of drawing on the skills of predecessors, generations of painters have remained committed to the artistic pursuit of “learning from both nature and inner reflections”. In particular, Mr. Li Bing, a Sichuan painter, has inpdependently explored and refined a new method named ——“"Fu pi (axe-chop) ts'un"”(also known as “Li Bing's snow-chapped method) and unique methods of “squeezed white”“contrasted white”stained snow since the 1980s and the 1990s. These methods fill the gap in the Chinese ink and wash painting of plateau snow-capped mountains, blaze out a new realm of ice and snow landscape painting, and make the painter a founder and leader of the Chinese ink and snow-capped mountain painting system.

“Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC: Backbone of the Great Power·Light on the Peak of Sacred Land——Work Exhibition of Plateau Snow Mountain Painting School” in 2019 was held successively in Beijing, Qinghai, Tibet, Yunnan, and Xinjiang and received widespread praise. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, on the basis of tour exhibitions in five places across the country last year, Sichuan Artists Association, Zhejiang Artists Association, Shandong Artists Association, Shaanxi Artists Association, Guizhou Artists Association, and the Chongqing Artists Association will jointly start a tour of "Backbone of the Great Power·Light on the Peak of Sacred Land——Work Exhibition of Plateau Snow Mountain Painting School" in Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Shandong. The exhibits feature snow-capped mountains on plateaus and show the new spiritual outlook and cultural pursuit of contemporary Chinese landscape painters.

“Culture is the soul of a country and a nation. ”General Secretary Xi Jinping systematically expounded the historical mission, program of action, and strategic path of my the cultural development in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Under the guidance of this spirit, painters continue to deepen and move forward their artistic exploration of ink and wash painting of snow-capped mountains. We believe that this tour exhibition in Zhejiang will inspire more landscape painters to join the creation of plateau snow mountain paintings as it continues to explore the academic proposition of “ink and wash snow mountains”. At the same time, it will also attract the people of Zhejiang to develop new recognition of and love for the national, regional, and cultural attributes of the western plateau in the motherland. This exhibition is a celebration of practical creation that consolidates cultural creation, historical progress that marks cultural progress, and cultural confidence that molds the spiritual backbone of the Chinese nation!