These works bore both ethnic and national flavours and Western influences, noted art critic Liu Xiaochun.

However, while most young artists were embracing new ideas and trends from the West, some Chinese artists made headway in depicting classic Chinese and ethnic subject matter.

For example, Song Huimin's oil painting of Cao Xueqin, author of "A Dream of Red Mansions," and Wei Ershen's oils of Inner Mongolian herdsmen, pushed the boundaries of traditional Realism, said Yin Shuangxi, an art critic with the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Between 1995 and 2005, Chinese oil artists began paying more attention to local and indigenous resources, the cultural identity of their works in global markets, commented art critic Shao Dazhen.

"Few young and middle-aged oil artists today are copying their Western counterparts. Instead, they are putting a Chinese mark on art works that are favoured both by Western curators and collectors," he said.

And China's deepening reforms plus the unstoppable trends of globalization and urbanization have put Chinese oil artists on a roller coaster of commercialism.