Gao Xiang (1688 - 1753). Gao Xiang was a Chinese painter from Ganquan, present-day Yangzhou in Jiangsu. He belongs to the canon of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou; a group of painters in the early Qing period who rejected orthodox ideas about painting in favor of an expressive style of their own. Gao lived in poverty, although he was a skilled painter of landscapes and bird and flower paintings. He was particularly skilled in painting plum blossom. Gao had great admiration for the painting of Shitao.