Snapshots of Zhou Xiaoping's life in the aboriginal community.[Photo provided to China Daily]

After that, his curiosity led him to explore the jungle in Arnhem Land near Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, where he tried to integrate into the aboriginal community there.

He had to change his daily routine and lifestyle from being an urban dweller, adapting to hunt and fish for food during the daytime and bedding down for the night in the open.

"When we caught our prey, we threw the animal into the fire, and ate its meat without any flavoring. It was always mixed with sand," says the Chinese-Australian painter, adding that the eating habits of his aboriginal friends didn't bother him, despite being so unfamiliar initially.

He tried to put behind him the rules and social trifles of urban living and wholeheartedly embrace the daily life of a bushman, which later transformed his understanding of the essence of aboriginal culture and increasingly influenced, both implicitly or explicitly, his art.