He also met luminaries such as Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi during his stay in India, and got his sources of inspiration which led to the creation of iconic works such as the 4.21m-wide "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" painting on show at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). Artworks like "After a Poem of the Six Dynasties", "Portrait of Ms Jenny" and "Put Down Your Whip" were also created during his sojourns in Southeast Asia. SAM Director Kwok Kian Chow mentioned that Xu's name tops the list in Asian modern realism art, and his connections with various parts of Asia and Europe opened a new chapter of historical narratives, exchanges and influences of aesthetics and ideas in art.