According to art critic Li Xianting, the turning pointing of Cynical Realism occurs in the year 1988 to 1989. Liu Wei, as one of the most significant witnesses and contributors of this shift, delineates the impotence of artist in face of the surge of pragmatism in contemporary society. In most of his works, Liu twists a certain segment of the human body by exaggerating its features. This portrait Old Classmates - the Artist Wang Jinsong does not only indicate the fellowship of Liu Wei and Wang Jinsong, but also mark Liu's journey as an artist in such an epoch.

The premiere of Cynical Realism took place in April 1992 when Liu Wei and Fong Lijun organized an exhibition in a museum, which was formerly a temple, in Beijing suburb. Discipline: Mother and Son and Portrait of a Beauty, created in 1993, displays the artist's self-mockery in response to his passive and fruitless confrontation with the reality and himself.

Similar to Edward Ruscha, Liu Wei also pays close attention to the interplay of text and image. Liu fuses pictorial elements of Chinese painting, including the white negative space and the red signet, into his works to draw an analogue of the past to comment on the present. These two works of Liu also reveal his examination on the emphasis of obedience and virtues under the feudal patriarchy, criticizing the moral codes of constraint on women in China. Liu' sarcastic frivolity in his works demonstrates his hippie jocose attitude, which also helps develop his very own artistic expression (L? Peng, A History of Art in 20th-Century China, p.810).