As to why the artist could come up with such a strange vision as this "foreign devil," Ruitenbeek explains that in the eighteenth century, especially the period of the emperor Ch'ien Lung from which this picture comes, there was a sort of European vogue at court which was also felt in the coastal provinces where export art for the European market was produced.
至於畫家因何突發奇想，畫出一個「洋鬼子」來，他表示，在十八世紀，尤其乾隆時代，宮中相當時興西洋風味；而沿海諸省在大量產銷貿易瓷以供歐洲市場，當也受其影響。