In the late 1980s, boat people became an important subject in Liu’s work. He created many works with boat people and farmers, with many different boats and a range of farming implements and utensils on the boats. I wonder: did Liu Shiming’s numerous works featuring boats and boat people in addition to expressing what he saw and felt in real life, depict his realizations about life and rivers, progress and struggle? Otherwise, he would not have maintained a deep interest in the subject form the 1950s to his later years. 

Yin Shuangxi, True Art: A Study of Liu Shiming’s Sculpture