Walking through Beijing's Tiananmen Square, I was approached by a student who invited me to see her art school's exhibition inside China's National Art Museum. I figured, Why not?

Though much of the student work was technically accomplished (yes, it was all for sale to tourists), nothing grabbed me. Then I saw a provocative sequence of boldly colored, sharply angular paintings that looked like nothing else. I bought one. By chance, the young artist was there. His English was good, so we talked about his work and ambitions.