Ethnic minority- themed artistic creation is always regarded as an exquisite flower in the garden of China’s culture. It has great influence to the art industry since the 20th century as an important cultural resource and an important part of China contemporary art in the fields of the subject, the image and the aesthetic appreciation. Since the 1940s, almost every accomplished artist drew such beautiful land with a large number of outstanding works and remarkable achievements. Numerous paintings still remain the touching artistic appeals. The colorful cultural customs, unique geographic locations and original lifestyles have greatly inspired the awareness and the enthusiasm of the artists and attracted more and more painters passionate to the ethnic minority life to the frontiers for folk trips.   

In the 1940s, because of war chaos, a plenty of artists moved to the hinterland and naturally felt the folk life of the ethnic minority and then consciously shouldered the responsibility to concern about the mass life destiny and pursue the nationality of the paintings. In the 1950s and the 1960s, all the minority regions carried out democracy reforms with great changes in terms of the social system and the life style. A lot of artists went to the ethnic minority frontiers along with cultural troupes and participated in the local reform when experiencing the life and collecting materials. Such activities organized by the cultural departments have established solid foundation in promoting the prosperity of minority- themed artistic creation. The paintings during those periods mainly reflect the social changes, the happiness of the new life and national reunification, such as building the road, medical care, learning the knowledge and so on. Since the reform and opening up in 1978, the ethnic minority-themed creation has become more and more diverse from the language to the conception away from the simplification and the vulgarization during the Cultural Revolution.   

The exhibition displays fine collection by the National Art Museum of China including masterpieces by modern and contemporary celebrated artists. It covers a wide range of artistic categories from traditional Chinese paintings and oil paintings to watercolor paintings and comic books as well as various ethnic minorities including Tibetan, Uygur, Kazakh, Dai, Mongol and Yi. The museum provides such unique exhibition to share the warmness and happiness in this harmonious ethnic family in time of the 2009 Spring Festival.