Xu continued to give a profile of those unsung heroes from different walks of life after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, besides his prime responsibility as the dean of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He produced dozens of sketches of workers at factories and miners and from the rural areas, which are on display. Some are of those who worked at the construction site of a flood-control project in Shandong province in 1951. Xu and his students traveled to the site to observe people's work and drew there. The drawings were to prepare for a painting, but Xu was not able to do it before he died two years later.

Also on show are paintings by Xu's students who dedicated their careers to depicting the life of ordinary people.

Xu Ji, a grandson of the artist, says the exhibition shows Xu Beihong's "spiritual legacy of believing in people's strength as the creator of history and the fundamental force of social development".