Yellow Earth reinterprets Maoist-era Chinese ink painting through the lens of the postwar geopolitical landscape by examining the Chang'an School, a collective of six Xi'an-based artists led by Shi Lu and Zhao Wangyun. Active during the "Seventeen Years" (1949-1966)-a foundational period for China's socialist values-the school transformed ink painting from a traditional, studio-based practice into a dynamic, hybrid genre that infused the Chinese medium with Western realism. By producing lucid portrayals of peasants and the rugged Northwest landscape, these artists crafted a visual manifesto of national strength and artistic modernity, effectively anchoring China's socialist aspirations in its ancient cultural heritage.

Positioning this regional movement within the context of global modernism, Yang Wang argues that ink painting served as a strategic tool for the Chinese state to assert itself as an emergent leader of the Third World. The Chang'an School articulated a distinct, indigenous modernity that challenged the Euro-American-centric discourse of postwar art. While standard narratives about Western modernism often focused on the tension between realism and abstraction, mid-twentieth-century Chinese art prioritized developing aesthetic forms-such as realism, nativism, and neo-traditionalism-specifically designed to bolster the nation-building efforts of the newly established People's Republic of China.