His paintings "Walking in the Green", "Farewell to Taoyuan" and "Drunk Monk" were immediately ordered for collection when they participated in the exhibition held by Shanghai "Bee Painting Society". The works "Flower Lady Map" and "Go Map" were selected for the first national art exhibition, and were appreciated by the famous revolutionary and painter He Xiangning, who personally wrote articles to promote them. Another work he created, Infinite Buddha's Life, was also selected to participate in the Sino-Japanese painting exhibition. Liu Haisu, a painter, is also very concerned about this rising star in painting. When he held an exhibition in Germany in 1933, he specially brought two works, Fog and Plum Blossom, which were created by Shen Zicheng, and Fog was also purchased by Berlin Museum.
Shen Zicheng is good at poetry, calligraphy and fine painting. The figures, landscapes, flowers, fruits and vegetables he made are capable of writing, vigorous and exquisite. Among them, figure painting is also a creative field of Shen Zicheng. His figure painting creation does not make a manuscript, but draws lines casually, and the figure modeling does not follow the predecessors, breaking through the traditional figure program, and the ladies and children are naive and have a lofty atmosphere. His works, such as "Children's Fun Picture" and "Little Makeup Picture", are rich in life, accurate in modeling and strong in movement, and vividly depict the facial expressions and psychological characteristics of the characters. In 1947, when introducing Shen Zicheng, the Art Yearbook published in Shanghai said: "Being good at figure painting, taking the old lotus as a brushstroke, taking the new method, is simple and lovely, different from the times, occasionally making children's small scenes, and being funny."
"Heroes vs. Huang Tiandang" is one of the most important representative works of Shen Zicheng's figure painting. This magnificent 1-meter scroll depicts the scene of tens of thousands of young intellectuals taking part in Huang Tiandang's lake reclamation in the early 196s. There are as many as 1998 people and more than a thousand ships in the picture. In the creation of this work, the lines used by Shen Zicheng are combined with the stone flavor on the basis of the eighteen strokes of traditional figure painting. The figures are accurate in modeling, different in posture and rich in expression, and they are both independent and in harmony with the environment. "Heroes vs. Huang Tiandang" is not only Shen Zicheng's masterpiece on the road of Chinese painting innovation, but also one of the highest-level masterpieces of China painters in Chinese painting creation after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The reason why Shen Zicheng painted figures to this extent is also the result of his long-term unremitting efforts. As early as the age of 16, Shen Zicheng had learned the painting of ladies from Pan Yasheng, an old painter. He spent five or six years continuously copying a large number of traditional masterpieces on the subject of meticulous painting of ladies. After the age of 6, he also copied Tang Yin's Beautiful Women, Gu Hongzhong's Han Xizai's Banquet, Li Gonglin's Wei Mo's Teaching, and other meticulous figure paintings. Shen Zicheng traveled all his life and paid attention to absorbing creative nutrition from nature. In the mid-197s, Shen Zicheng, who was over 7 years old, spent more than a month traveling around Huangshan, Taishan, Luoyang, Huashan, Xi 'an, Chengdu and Chongqing, and went through the Three Gorges to Lushan, creating a large number of sketches. In 198, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, Shen Zicheng went to Beijing Chinese Painting Research Association for a three-month creation. In the early 199s, Shen Zicheng was invited to Singapore twice to hold art exhibitions, and more than 2 works on display were all sold out.
Shen Zicheng's works in his later years are not only landscapes, flowers and fruits, but also profound and ancient characters, vigorous and round, with unrestrained brushwork and vivid interest. Wet pen, dry pen, thick ink and light ink are used together, which is vivid and unique in old health, giving people unique artistic enjoyment. He has published "Collection of Famous Paintings in Past Dynasties" and "Collection of Paintings and Calligraphy by Shen Zicheng". In June 1996, Shen Zicheng died in Suzhou at the age of 93.