Cao Zhen

caozhen0806@126.com

ELEGANT paintings by Japan-educated Chinese artist He Xiangning (1878-1972) are on display at her alma mater Joshibi University of Art and Design in Japan until Sept. 29, after being exhibited at Ueno Royal Museum from Sept. 6 to 15.

From the collection of He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, the exhibited items are He’s classical paintings, featuring plum blossoms, pine trees, lions, tigers and landscapes. Her style was also influenced by the Lingnan School of Painting, a modern school of Chinese brush painting in South China. She retained a sensitivity to the delicate colors and meticulous brush strokes characteristic in Japanese painting.

A native of Nanhai in Foshan City in central Guangdong, He was one of the earliest Chinese students to study in Japan and lived 13 years there. She went to Japan in 1903 with her husband Liao Zhongkai who studied political science. She studied landscape and flower painting at Tokyo Women’s Arts School (today’s Joshibi University of Art and Design) and then continued to study animal painting under the Japanese artist Raiaki Tanaka.

While in Tokyo, He and Liao met the Chinese revolutionist Sun Yat-sen in 1903 and became two of the earliest members of Sun’s anti-imperial revolutionary movement Tongmenghui (also known as the Chinese United League).

He’s son, Liao Chengzhi (1908-1983), was also a revolutionist and a painter. Born in Tokyo, Liao worked in various positions related to foreign affairs after the founding of the PRC in 1949 most prominently president of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Society. Liao studied painting with his mother from childhood and they later collaborated on many landscape and figure paintings.

Since 2003, He Xiangning Art Museum has curated exhibition tours of He’s works in various Chinese cities. Founded in 1995, the museum mainly engages in collecting, displaying and studying He’s painting and calligraphy, which are permanently on display on its first floor.