Before Tang Zhigang began his successful Children in Meeting Series, he painted a series of portraits of soldiers. With his military upbringing and his subsequent career as an army officer, he has complete understanding of what a soldier's life is. In Young Soldier (Lot 17), a portrait of a young army officer, thick and rapid brushstrokes are utilized, portraying the subject in a naturalistic manner, without any exaggeration. In this early stage of Tang's artistic career, he was the first artist to depict soldiers realistically without any propagandist intentions. The treatment of his subject here is that of simplicity and realism.