The Chinese title “Sai Weng Holding Fire” is a new word created by Wang Yifan on the basis of a Chinese idiom “Sai Weng shi ma (Old man Sai Weng lost his horse)”. Here, the artist uses “Sai Weng” to refer to the following half of the idiom - “Yan zhi fei fu (might turn out to be a gain)” - an uncertain status. It reexamines the shortsighted attitude of pursuing “gain and loss” in this utilitarian society and expresses the artist’s dialectical conception of world.

Most of Wang Yifan’s works are exquisitely personal, possessing a strong essence of narration. The painting Holding Fire depicts the image of old man Sai Weng holding a burning match which represents energy. The work is actually a kind of metaphor of the status of the artist’s real life – He doesn’t care to be judged as unsuccessful by secular standards, as he knows himself possess power. The figures in other paintings are mostly his friends or the characters he created in his script. For Wang Yifan, painting is more importantly a carrier of telling stories and conveying concepts. Beneath the realistic style lies the artist’s extremely personal discussion about time and humanity.

When it comes to making installation works, Wang Yifan described it as putting new wine into old bottles. He uses this new form to express once again the universal emotions. The Airport of Old Bathtub Town is originated from the childhood experience of playing model plane in the bathtub and therefore is nostalgia for old times. Ban Ban shows a small and shabby made-in-China model standing lonely beside a brand new rubbish bin; this dramatic scene provokes people’s most common feeling of compassion. Welding No.1 is an exploration on the form and aesthetics of installation work.