He was born in 1947 in Zhejiang as the son of a famous political poet Ai Quing. He studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, where at the time there weren’t many options to choose from. Students could learn traditional ink painting or realism. Luckily, Ai Xuan chose the latter, indebting the art world from that point on. The artist proudly states that realism is the only style he has ever known. In art, he values technique and required skill. This point of view might easily contradict to anything modern, which Ai Xuan frowns upon. He strongly believes that the harder it was to make the artwork, the better it is.