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Wang Huaiqing's teacher was the Chinese master artist Wu Guanzhong, but the creative style he developed was completely different from that of his teacher. There's a sense of the profound in his works, filling the tranquility and elegance with visual tension. The renowned Chinese art critic Jia Fangzhou made this comment about Wang Huaiqing's works: "When examined from a philosophical perspective, Wang Huaiqing has chosen to travel on an extremely rareied and exact path. In the treatment of planes we see the depth of space, within the expression igurative abstractionism can be found, in the sensual illusions principles of reason, and in the Western techniques of expression ind the cultural sensitivities of the East. Traditional Chinese art has always emphasized the structure. From the spatial layout of the building, the composition of the painting, the framework of calligraphy, the contrast between ink and space of seal scripts through to the hollow spaces of the common paper-cut and more, all approach the subject matter with an eye to its structure. In Wang Huaiqing's work, these traditional elements have been given a creative modern transformation to become the main themes of his own style."

In his works from the late 1990's, Wang Huaiqing found his inspiration in traditional wooden furniture. A great change in the disassembly and assembly of traditional concepts is demonstrated, extracting the structure itself to become the central visual motif. Through the breakdown and recombination of furniture, he examines the interdependence between structures and uses a new painting language to re-interpret the world. In the painting, ink such as back and white color tones, the clean surfaces and simple textures create a modernist yet very Chinese atmosphere, providing the audience with a foreign visual experience. Even Michael Sullivan was moved to say: "It is that poetic sense of order created from within a chaotic world that makes Wang Huaiqing's art so inspiring."

In this restless world, the artist creates a quiet corner of reminiscence. Wang gets his materials from the folk crafts, and makes a modern classic work of his own style. "Portrait of Stool" finished in 1999, is one of Wang's favourites. The main character is a simple old stool. The shape of this old piece of furniture is distorted into geometric patterns, a coexistent form of round and square. The lonely counterpart looks like the face painted in the Chinese Opera-easy but independent; it tells its own story. Replacing the original wooden colour, the ink colour turns its functionality into a pure structure with a minimal abstract beauty. Yet, in that mottled background, the stool conveys a reminiscent atmosphere. Wang is always good at composing a picture, which gives the beholder an association of stage. He presents a time gaze and an empty stage in his paintings; he let the beholders to ill in the stories which are once performed on stage.

Why does he choose the Ming-style furniture as his characters? Wang answered, "I want to paint something which reverses the order of life and a lifeless object as well as the main and the subordinate characters. Sometimes, I feel that no matter how glorious and luxurious a person once lived, life itself is still very fragile. Very often, it cannot last longer than a piece of furniture. I just feel that a lifeless object is closer to me than a human being." After 1990, the Ming-style furniture has become the main character in the paintings of the artist from Beijing. His furniture sometimes presents a simple and distorted shape, and sometimes it just falls apart and gives a feeling of loneliness and loss.

The black structure in "Portrait of Stool" contains the power of the stele-style calligraphy. Its silhouette-like composition also narrates a profound meaning. An ancient stool enlarged by the artist brings out an imaginary space of the life of a Chinese intellectual. It also inhabits the passion of a contemporary artist to present the culture of his nation to the world.