For Yuan, painting during the era when martial law was lifted, in a Taiwan convulsed by social movements, political upheaval, stock-market fever and financial scandals, naturally meant producing satirical works such as Crazy, with its swarming ants, Puppets, showing figures controlled by strings, Deconstructed Age, with its crowd of self-interested marchers, and Swapping Places on the theme of shifting power.
身在解嚴前後社會運動風起雲湧、政治狂熱、股市發燒、黑金充斥的台灣，他很自然地畫出《瘋狂》的蟻群漩渦、《戲偶》的身不由己、《解構的年代》遊行人潮各懷鬼胎、《換人坐（做）》的權位大挪移等諷世作品。