Yang Maolin's early impassioned works of the 1980s show him depicting the vigorous struggle between the land and tradition, industry and modernity. While he brings into play such traditional figures as Kung-Kung and Horyi in individual works, it is the series called Behavior of Game Playing (Lot 1654) in which Yang simplifies the drama of struggle in works such as those entitled Fighting Section I to II Here the colors are strikingly clear browns and yellows. The line of the muscle mass of clasped hands or men in the throws of individual combat possesses the exaggeration of the line and action of comic-book characters touched by the hand of the great muralist Diego Rivera.
"There are two important reference points here for me to begin to create the work I have. Through the land I am looking for my position and my identity as a Taiwanese. And through history and culture I can find today's Taiwan culture and position in the world." he says.

Ian Findlay-Brown, "Grand Vision and Identity." Inviting the Immortals - Culture. Intercourse. Tayouan History. Ed. Odile Chan. Taipei: Lin & Keng Gallery, Inc., 1999. 20.