 The artists’ move was motivated by a desire to get away from Beijing’s post 1989 restrictive environment, while being close to what was at that time a still liberal Beijing University campus.In Yuanmingyuan Guo Jian began his professional painting career.Following the Tiananmen protests and subsequent crackdown of 1989, the art sector and the overall social and political environment in Beijing and across China, remained restrictive, and conservative.