As a writer, Ni Yide used his considerable literary skills to defend stylistic innovation and personal creativity as the essentials for a modern art in modern China. In the 2nd national art exhibition of China, Ni Yide criticized the judges for their conservative bias, and dismissed "official art" with the argument that in France real progress always came outside of the government salon. Ni Yide wrote an article defending Qui Ti (1906-1958), a Storm society member who received criticism from realists for a still life of flowers she painted. He wrote an article on Pan Tianshou’s (1897-1971) bird and flower landscapes where he described ‘Bathed in Dew’ as poetical and ‘After the Rain’ where he mentions for example, “...the crimson flowers with their stately leaves appear pure and noble, lovely and gentle and above all lyrical in their beauty”. He uses strong imagery. According to Yide “ ...If we want to exhibit our national heritage, I believe, landscape painting is the most suitable subject. Chinese landscapes in every place possess indigenous Chinese traits.
