While both these associations were interested in developing modern art, they were different in their approaches. The "May" people wanted to express modern ideology and concepts through traditional Chinese brush paintings, while the "Orient" group was more interested in western techniques of modern art.
這兩個畫會，是台灣提倡現代繪畫的先驅：「五月」是具體地把現代思想與觀念表現在中國傳統的水墨畫上，而「東方」則是嘗試用現代的藝術形式來發揮中國人的思想。