An exceptional case which includes Singapore ink art is The 5th International Ink Painting Biennial of Shenzhen curated by Dong Xiaoming and Yan Shanchun. Singapore Modern Ink Painting was presented as one of the exhibitions in the Biennial. Kwok Kian Chow, Joanna Lee & Chow Yian Ping, “Singapore Modern Ink Painting,” in The 5th International Ink Painting Biennial of Shenzhen, exh. cat. (Shenzhen: Shenzhen Municipal Government, 2006).

Some early exhibitions surveying Singapore ink art include: The First Ink Exhibition organised by Marine Parade Community Club, see The First Ink, exh. cat. (Singapore: Marine Parade Community Club, c. 1991); Journey of Ink organised by the National Museum Art Gallery in 1993, see Kwok Kian Chow & Chua Ek Kay, “A Perspective on the Development of Ink Painting in Singapore,” in Journey of Ink, eds. Chua Ek Kay & Joyce Fan (Singapore: National Museum, 1993), 8–21; Collection of Ink Paintings and Calligraphic Works by Singapore’s First Generation Artists organised by Braddell Heights Community Club Chinese Traditional Arts Centre, see Yeo Mang Thong, “Determining Singapore’s First Generation Ink Painters and Calligraphers – An Exploratory Study,” in Collection of Ink Paintings and Calligraphic Works by Singapore’s First Generation Artists, eds. Ang Tock Kiong, Hong Ser Chong & Tan Teo Kwang (Singapore: Braddell Heights Community Club Chinese Traditional Arts Centre, 1992), unpaginated.

The ethnic-based or medium-based approach often happened in the context of exhibitions or activities centred on the art societies and associations. Discussions on artists such as Chen Wen Hsi, Chen Chong Swee and Cheong Soo Pieng are largely within the discourse of Nanyang art while some second-generation artists such as Henri Chen Kezhan, Tan Swie Hian and Tan Oe Pang are framed in the later Modern Art Movement of the 1970s and afterwards. See for instance, Kwok Kian Chow, Channels & Confluences: A History of Singapore Art (Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 1996).

Wang Gungwu, China and the Chinese Overseas (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, c. 2003), 3–23.

“Chineseness” is described by Wang as the key quality of “the sojourner pattern” of Chinese immigration. Ibid., 9.

The school was short-lived, lasting about two years. In the school’s first enrolment, none of the students chose Chinese painting as a major subject. Zhong Yu, Malaixiya huaren meishushi 1900–1965 [History of Malaysian Chinese Art 1900–1965] (Kuala Lumpur: Chung Chen Sun Art and Design Group Sdn Bhd, 1999), 6–8.

For example, its activities included classes and regular exams in calligraphy and painting, the publication of journals, calligraphy competitions, exhibitions and regular member gatherings for the appreciation of art and exchange of knowledge. Yeo Mang Thong, “Zhanqian xinma meishu: cong nanyang shuhuashe dao huaren meishu yanjiuhui [Pre-war Malayan Art: From United Artists Malaysia to Chinese Art Society],” in Xinjiapo zhanqian huaren meishushi lunji [Essays on the History of Pre-war Chinese Art in Singapore] (Singapore: Singapore Society of Asian Studies, 1992) 33–9; Zhong, op. cit., 16–8.

Zhong, op. cit., 37.

Xie Guanghui and Chen Yupei, Xinjiapo malaixiya huawen shufa bainian [A Century of Chinese Calligraphy in Singapore and Malaysia] (Guangzhou: Jinan Daxue Chubanshe, 2013), 6–7.

Yeo Mang Thong, “Xinjiapo zhanqian (1881–1941) huashe meishu huodong: yi lisan qingjie wei xushu kuangjia [Activities of Chinese Societies in Pre-war Singapore (1881–1941): Using the Chinese Diaspora as Narrative Framework],” unpublished, 2015.

Yeo Mang Thong, “He Xiangning zai xinjiapo [He Xiangning in Singapore],” 13–23; “Gao Jianfu: cong xinjiapo zhanqian (1930–1932) huawen ribao suo kanzai ziliao kanqi zaihaiwaide meishuhuodong [Gao Jianfu: Artistic Activities in Pre-war Singapore (1930–1932) based on Published Materials from Chinese Dailies],” 24–7; “Xu Beihong: cong xinjiapo zhanqian (1939–1941) huawen ribao suokanzai ziliao kanqi zaihaiwai de meishuhuodong [Xu Beihong: Artistic Activities in Pre-war Singapore (1939–1941) based on Published Materials from Chinese Dailies],” 98–108; “Liu Haisu zai xinjiapo [Liu Haisu in Singapore],” 141–8. These essays are published in Yeo Mang Thong, Xinjiapo zhanqian huaren meishu shilunji [Essays on the History of Pre-war Chinese Art in Singapore].

This includes Qing Court officials such as Huang Zunxian who was the Chief Consul of the Qing Court from 1891 to 1894, reformers such as Kang Youwei, and local literary figures such as Khoo Seok Wan and Yeh Chi-Yun. On their artistic activities conducted locally, see Yeo, “Xinjiapo zhanqian (1881–1941) huashe meishu huodong: yi lisan qingjie wei xushu kuangjia [Activities of Chinese Societies in Pre-War Singapore (1881–1941): Using the Chinese Diaspora as Narrative Framework].”

Khoo’s cultural circle traversed geographical boundaries, ranging from Singapore to Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as Fujian and Guangdong in southern China. Ibid.

Newspaper and social societies were some of the key channels that introduced and promoted traditional literati art. For example, see Yeo Mang Thong, “Zhanqian xinma meishu: cong nanyang shuhuashe dao huaren meishu yanjiuhui,” [Pre-war Malayan Art: From United Artists Malaysia to Chinese Art Society]; “Xinjiapo zhanqian (1881–1941) huashe meishu huodong: yi lisan qingjie wei xushu kuangjia,” [Activities of Chinese Societies in Pre-war Singapore (1881–1941): Using the Chinese Diaspora as Narrative Framework]; and activities of the United Artists Malaysia (or Nanyang Society of Calligraphy and Painting), for which Khoo Seok Wan was also a founding member.

This was recorded in his second inscription dated 1955. In his first inscription dated 1945, when he had just completed the artwork, Wong noted that the image of the venerable, sparsely-petalled bough is “the writing [painting] of concerns that fill my breast.” Translation the author’s.

Qijue is a quatrain with seven characters in each line.

One example would be the painters who followed the Shanghai School traditions, discussed in this essay. In addition, the most significant example is probably the Yuan master Zhao Mengfu, whose innovation in landscape painting largely relies on the adoption of calligraphic pattern and techniques. Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy 8th–14th Century (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), 436–40.

Tan Keng Cheow at Tuan Mong High School and Chung Cheng High School; Wong Jai Ling at Chung Cheng High School and Hua Yi Secondary School; and Chen Jen Hao at Dunman High School.

Tan Siah Kwee studied under Tan Keng Cheow, Lim Tze Peng under Wong Jai Ling and Koh Mun Hung under Chen Jen Hao.

Mostly refers to that produced during the Shang (c. 1600–1050 b.c.), Han (206 b.c.–220 a.d.) and Northern Wei (386–534 a.d.) dynasties.

For material on the Shanghai School, see Shan Guolin, “Painting of China’s New Metropolis: the Shanghai School, 1850–1900,” in A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of 20th Century China, eds. Julia F. Andrews & Kuiyi Shen, exh. cat. (New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1998), 20–34.

Li Kuishi was appointed the first lecturer of Chinese ink painting at NAFA in 1940. See Zhong, op. cit., 37.

During his lifetime, See wrote a number of articles on calligraphy and seal carving. For example, “Bei yu tie [Stele and Tie Schools],” 113–6; “Zhuanke liupai [Seal Carving Schools],” 136–41. Both essays are published in Xiangtuo conggao [Collected Writings of Hiang To], ed. Lin Wanjing (Singapore: Wanli Shuju, 1989).

The artist was also well versed in classical literature and most of his paintings were inscribed with classical poetry composed by himself.

For the discussion on Fan’s pedagogy, see Kwok Kian Chow, “Fan Chang Tien: The Literati Gardener,” Fan Chang Tien: The Literati Artist (Singapore: Heng Ngee Hwee and Editions Didier Millet, 2014), 45–8.

These include the Molan Art Association and Siaw-Tao Chinese Seal-Carving Calligraphy & Painting Society, both run by the students of See Hiang To, and the Hwa Hun Art Society, run by the pupils of Fan Chang Tien.

The tradition of collecting Chinese painting and calligraphy can traced back to the late Qing Dynasty. Khoo Seok Wan was one important collector. Local collections evolved throughout the first half of the 20th century and reached a zenith after World War II with the establishment of some significant collections such as Xubaizhai by Low Chuck Tiew and Xiuhailou by Yeo Khee Lim. Xubaizhai, in particular, is internationally recognised as the most comprehensive and best private collection of Ming and Qing Chinese paintings. It was donated to the Hang Kang Art Museum in 1989. For a survey on the local collection of Chinese ink since the late 19th century, see Du Nanfa, “Tiannan zhiyin bainian qingyuan: xinjiapo shoucang zhongguo shuhua bainian mailuo [Soulmate of the South, A Century of Affinity: A Century of Collecting Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in the Singapore Context],” Gean Kanshan: Shuhua Mingjia Fangtanlu [Mediated Views: Interviews of Experts on Painting and Calligraphy] (Shanghai: Shanghai Shudian Chubanshe, 2010), 175–200.

For example, the exhibitions of Xu Beihong, Huang Binhong and Shanghai School masters. Chen Chong Swee, “Sishinianlai xinjiapo yitan huigu [Review of Four Decades of Singapore Art Scene],” in Chen Zongrui wenji [Collected Writings of Chen Chong Swee], ed. Chen Qixin (Singapore: Chen Qixin, 2010), 40.

For the concept of “closed” discourse, see John Clark, “Open and Closed Discourse of Modernity in Asian Art,” in Modernity in Asian Art, ed. John Clark (Sydney: Wild Peony, 1993), 2–3.

F.W. Mote, “The Arts and the ‘Theorising Mode’ of the Civilisation,” in Artists and Traditions, ed. Christian Murck (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976), 6; for a complete argument of the usage of the past in Chinese culture, see pages 3–8.

Kang Youwei, “Wanmu caotang lunhua,” foreword to Wanmu caotang canghuamu [Catalogue of Chinese Paintings from the Wanmu Caotang Collection], published in Meishu lunji zhongguohua taolun zhuanji [Essays on Art Criticism: Volume on Chinese Painting Discourse]. eds. Shen Peng and Chen Lüsheng (Beijing: Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1986), 1. For the critique on Chinese ink painting, see Shui Tianzhong, “Zhongguohua lunzheng wushinian (1900–1950) [Fifty Years of Debate on Chinese Painting (1900–1950)],” in Chinese Painting and the Twentieth Century: Creativity in the Aftermath of Tradition, eds. Cao Yiqiang and Fan Jingzhong (Hangzhou: Zhejiang Meishu Chubanshe, 1997), 40–61.

For a comprehensive study on Xu Beihong’s artistic life related to Singapore, see Singapore Art Museum, Xu Beihong in Nanyang (Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 2008). Xu’s avocation of realism was disseminated locally through his production of a large body of artworks, exhibitions and talks. For example, in the talk “National Painting and Copying Method” given during his exhibition in 1939, he clearly indicated the importance of drawing from life as a means to inject new life into Chinese painting and to negate the imitation of the ancients. Xu Beihong, “Guohua yu linmo [Chinese Painting and Copy Painting],” in Xu Beihong Lunyi [Xu Beihong on Art], ed. Wang Zhen (Shanghai: Shanghai Shuhua Chubanshe, 2010), 113–14.

For a historical study of the Chinese art scene under the control of the communist government in the period from 1949 to 1979, see Julia F. Andrews, Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China 1949–1979 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); on the issue of traditional Chinese painting, see Andrews, “Traditional Painting in New China: Guohua and the Anti-Rightist Campaign,” The Journal of Asian Studies 49, no. 3 (1990): 555–75.

Such a binary model had also been a core subject in the debates on Chinese painting that began with the May Fourth Movement and recurred in the 1950s and 1960s in mainland China. An analogy can also be seen between the modern ink painter Liu Guosong, founding member of Taiwan’s modern art group, the Fifth Moon Group, and the leading figure of New Confucianism, Xu Fuguan, in early 1960s Taiwan.

On art education and the artistic context of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, see Julia F. Andrews, “Chen Wen Hsi and Art Education in 1920s Shanghai,” in Convergences: Chen Wen Hsi Centennial Exhibition (Vol. 1) (Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 2006), 84–9. Andrew’s narrative not only refers to Chen Wen Hsi, but it could also refer to a number of immigrant artists who had studied in Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Liu Kang, Chen Chong Swee, Wu Tsai Yen, Cheong Soo Pieng (who had studied in Shanghai briefly before the outbreak of the war) and Yeh Chi Wei.

His vision is expressed in six principles: The fusion of cultures of the different races; The bridging of Eastern and Western art; The diffusion of the empirical and social thinking of the 20th century; The reflection of the needs of the people of the Federation of Malaya and Singapore; The expression of a local tropical flavour; and The fulfilment of educational and social needs.

This is clearly reflected in Chen’s own selection for his catalogue published before his death. Only two ink paintings produced before 1950 were included. Chen Chong Swee, The Paintings of Chen Chong Swee (Singapore: Nanfeng Meishushe, n.p.).

Chen Chong Swee, “Qiantan shuimohua de chuangxin [A Brief Discussion on Innovations in Chinese Ink],” Chen Zongrui wenji [Collected Writings of Chen Chong Swee], 65.

Ibid., 66.

Ibid.

The use of the Western method to convey light and shade (chiaroscuro) was commonly adopted by Chinese painting reformers, as seen in Xu Beihong’s ink figure paintings. Chen particularly objected to chiaroscuro and he addressed this in the inscription in his painting A Kampong (1950).

For his ideas on realism, see See Hiang To, “Sannianduolai de liuwang suodedaode huihuashangde renshi [Understanding of Painting As a Result of Three Years of Exile],” in Xiangtuo conggao [Collected Writings of Hiang To], 4–9.

Chen Wen Hsi is probably the only local ink painter to achieve such widespread recognition and this is exemplified by a series of significant exhibitions held during his lifetime. He was invited for a solo exhibition at the National Museum of History in Taipei in 1980, followed by a large-scale retrospective exhibition organised by the Chinese Ministry of Culture at National Art Museum of China in Beijing in 1987 and a solo exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1990. For a discussion of Chen’s art with a focus on its relation to the discourse of 20th-century Chinese ink, see Anita Chung, “Tradition and the Modern Vision: Chinese Paintings of Chen Wen Hsi” Convergences: Chen Wen Hsi Centennial Exhibition (Vol. 1), 190–9; Shao Dazhen, “Xiandai huihua yuyan de chuangzaozhe [Creators of the Language of Modern Art],” National Arts Council and National Museum, A Dialogue with Tradition: Chen Wen Hsi’s Art of the ‘80s (Singapore: National Museum, 1992), 17.

Chen indicated that he chose to enrol in the Department of Art Education since he could learn the strengths of both Chinese and Western art to fulfil his intention of combining both in his practice. Convergences: Chen Wen Hsi Centennial Exhibition (Vol. 2), 16.

Andrews, “Chen Wen Hsi and Art Education in 1920s Shanghai.

One of the earliest examples showing this bridging tendency is by Chen Hengque who published the groundbreaking article “Wenrenhua zhi jiazhi [The Value of Literati Painting].” In the article, he argued that literati painting which largely devalued visual verisimilitude, was instead concerned with expressing the painter’s spiritual sensibility and the external embodiment of the subject. Chen also acknowledged a similar tendency in recent Western modernist art. Chen Hengque, “Wenrenhua zhi jiazhi [The Value of Literati Painting],” in Meishu lunji: zhongguohua taolun zhuanji [Essays on Art: Volume on Chinese Painting Discourse], 12–7.

For instance, the art of the Qing eccentric masters Shi Tao and Bada Shanren were “rediscovered” in terms of their distinctive formal qualities when compared with modernist forms. For example, Liu Haisu in 1923 wrote an article “Shi Tao and Post-impressionism.” Lin Mu, Ershi shiji zhongguohua yanjiu [Studies in Chinese Painting of the 20th Century] (Guilin: Guangxi meishu chubanshe, 2000), 54–5; 63–71.

Chen was artistically indebted to one of the Eight Eccentric Yangzhou Masters of the Qing dynasty, Huangshen, the Ming Dynasty master, Xu Wei, the late Qing monk artist Xu Gu of the Shanghai School and the Ming Dynasty eccentric monk Bada Shanren. See Chung, op. cit.

Chen Wen Hsi and Zhong Meiyin, “Fifty years of Artistic Life,” trans. Goh Ngee Hui, Convergences: Chen Wen Hsi Centennial Exhibition (Vol. 1), 67.

Ibid., 66.

T.K. Sabapathy, “The Nanyang Artists: Some General Remarks,” Pameran Retrospektif Pelukis-Pelukis Nanyang (Kuala Lumpur: Muzim Seni Negara Malaysia, 1979), 44–5.

A similar brush treatment can be seen in the ink paintings of artists such as Lin Fengmian.

In 1963, Cheong Soo Pieng held a solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in London and in the same year, the Gallery organised a solo exhibition for Zao Wou-ki. Seng Yu Jin, “The Life of the Artist,” in Cheong Soo Pieng: Visons of Southeast Asia, ed. Yeo Wei Wei, exh. cat. (Singapore: The National Gallery, Singapore, 2010), 36.

The fluidity might also be inspired by Turner’s work, see Yeo Wei Wei, “Plates: Bridging Forms and Traditions,” in Cheong Soo Pieng: Visions of Southeast Asia, 224.

Compare with Fan Kuan’s painting, Travellers among Mountains and Streams. Early 11th century. Ink and colours on silk scroll. Collection of National Palace Museum, Taipei.

For example, plates 33 and 41 published in Soo Pieng (Singapore: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 2013).

The idea of “ink aesthetics” is borrowed from Maxwell K. Hearn, “Ink Art: An Introduction,” Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013), 14.

By contrast, as within the social and political circumstances of China, modernist approaches towards ink tradition were initially only undercurrents and would not receive public acknowledgement until much later, as seen in the artworks of Lin Fengmian and Wu Guanzhong.

Zhuang Shengtao, “Jinri haiwai zhongguo huajia de chujing [The Plight of Overseas Chinese Painters Today],” in Tenth Anniversary Art Exhibition of Molan She, exh. cat.

Relatively early on, Lim, who also worked in the medium of oil early in his career, and another self-taught painter, Hou Hsi Ching, focused on the portrayal of Singaporean scenes.

For a general survey on the emergence of modern art in Singapore, see Seng Yu Jin and Cai Heng, “The Real against the New: Social Realism and Abstraction,” published in this volume.

For example, Zao Wou-ki is based in Paris, Zeng Youhe in Hawaii and Zhao Chunxiang in New York. For intensive discussion on the abstract experiments by the overseas Chinese artists, see David Clarke, “Abstraction and Modern Chinese Art,” in Discrepant Abstraction, ed. Kobena Mercer (London: The Institute of International Visual Arts and MIT Press, 2006), 74–93.

This artwork was selected for Young Contemporaries exhibition at the Federation of British Artists Gallery in 1966 and at the Tate Gallery in 1967.

A significant example is Gu Wenda’s pseudo-characters series of in the 1980s. See Hearn, “Ink Art: An Introduction,” 37–71.

Zhuang Shengtao received traditional training from See Hiang To at NAFA in the 1960s apart from his undergraduate study in Chinese literature at Nanyang University. Zhuang lived in France in 1981 and from 1987 to 1991, he studied and lived in America.

Henri Chen Kezhan was a student of Fan Chang Tien between 1975 and 1979. From 1979 to 1983, Chen studied under Chao Shao-ang, a master of the Lingnan School tradition and Feng Kanghou, a calligrapher, in Hong Kong. See Chen KeZhan: Self-Portraits (Singapore: Chen Kezhan, 1990), unpaginated.

Tan Oe Pang, “Project-Structuralism & Aesthetics”, in Tan Oe Pang (Singapore: Hua Han Yanjiuhui, 1985), 12–38.

Ku Cheng-Mei, “The Avatamsaka – Aesthetics of Tan Swie Hian,” in Embracing Infinity: Works by Tan Swie Hian, trans. Goh Ngee Hui and Wong Chee Meng, exh. cat. (Singapore: National Heritage Board and National Arts Council, 2004), 106–26.

For a discussion of Chua’s practice, see Kwok Kian Chow, “Chua Ek Kay: Art History as Art Practice,” and Low Sze Wee, “Chua Ek Kay: Being and Becoming,” published in Chua Ek Kay: After the Rain, ed. Low Sze Wee, exh. cat. (Singapore: National Gallery Singapore, 2015).

Tang’s personal connection to the historical sources of ink painting through his family’s connection with the early generation immigrant artists isacknowl For example, Fan Chang Tien was his neighbour. Tang also received training in calligraphy while schooling in Singapore.