Lu Hao had become recognized as an accomplished ink painter by 1997 when he began to explore other ways in which to express his concern about the clash between the legacy of China's great classical civilization on the one hand and the drive to modernity propagated by the Chinese government on the other. Struck by how the city was changing, he became increasingly interested in finding a modern way to express his experience of contemporary life. It seemed logical to begin with architecture. In his installations he produces a series of architectural models made of Plexiglas of modern skyscrapers in China. By placing "construction" at the heart of his work, Lu Hao addresses, quite incisively, the question being asked in urban centers about this upheaval of Chinese society. He hit a nerve at the centre of the fundamental problem: the rapid growth of urban construction and the spiritual marginalization of intellectuals. The awareness that people have of temporal discontinuity- ruptures with tradition, susceptibility to innovation and emotions towards things of the past- are symptoms that express modernity.