Story of Chinese calligraphy Master – Mr. John Chen Han Chung By: Jane Chen
Chinese calligraphy has always been an art form to further one’s own development. But for internationally renowned calligraphist Master Chen, it is not limited to just improving oneself. Over the last several decades, he has integrated poetry, calligraphy and painting in his life. Mr. Chen has also promoted Chinese culture, Chinese calligraphy, and multicultural exchange in Canada and on the international arts stage. He is committed to educating the next generation of young people, sharing his knowledge and insights in the arts. Indeed, the contribution that he has made to the community, with his ‘legendary brush’, is significant.
Master Chen has been called the modern ‘Zhuge Liang’, a historical figure well known for being a strategist and a scholar. Even while living in seclusion, Zhuge’s reputation grew and was known as the ‘Crouching Dragon’. Unlike Zhuge, Master John Chen does not live in seclusion, but like him, John is proficient in the arts: poetry, painting and calligraphy, his specialty. He is one of the top calligraphers in the world. After he immigrated to Canada in 1988, John established his own business, but continued to indulge in his passion for the arts, making it his mission to promote Chinese culture. Since 2003 when he became the President of Canada China Calligraphy Association, he led the Canadian calligraphy community into the international art scene, and held a number of major arts events in alliance with the rest of the world.
John’s achievements were recognized when he was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013, the first person in the field of calligraphy in Canada to be awarded such a prize. In the same year, he represented Canada at the Third Annual Book and Art Forum, and gave a speech on "Art education and communication in painting and calligraphy ". He was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award in Calligraphy at the forum.
If you ask John his secret to success, he would respond quickly: " Sharp mind, macro vision, strategic decision and foresight." Is John not wise, just like Zhuge Liang?
John Chen was born in Penang, Malaysia, and moved with his parents to Taiwan when he was nine. His father’s family was engaged in business and trade, and on his mother’s side, the family was steeped in scholarly pursuits. John’s maternal grandfather, Fu Xiqi, was acclaimed in poetry, literature and art. Both his mother and aunt inherited their family’s scholarly traditions. His aunt was especially excellent in literature and calligraphy, with an outstanding character. She founded the Malaysia Bodhi High School in Malaysia, serving as its principal, and was much respected by the locals. Under the supervision of his mother and aunt, John studied poetry, calligraphy and literature during childhood. Through these daily rituals of reading literature and writing, he had a solid Chinese literary foundation.
John recalls that it was difficult to find calligraphic copybooks when he was young, and he would learn his writing on his aunt’s scripts. . After he entered high school, he used his brush strokes in the different calligraphic styles of Masters Liu and Yen. Much later John took more systematic calligraphy courses with Professor Wang Beiyue and Mr. Wang Kaihe, laying a solid basic foundation in calligraphy. John says his aunt had the most influence on him, and that he could never forget the example set by his grandfather. Decades later, he built a memorial building in Taiwan in tribute to his grandfather, Fu Xiqi.
Even in middle and high school, John revealed his writing talent, often writing thousand-word essays at a go. His teachers gave his writing high marks, and he was frequently asked to read his work on the podium. John, already a scholar in his own right, was the school writer and magazine editor.
In 1965, he graduated from the Department of Chinese Literature at Tamkang University. After teaching a number of years at a high school, he joined China Television in 1972 and began a nearly 20-year career in television. He was a specialist, a team leader, and chief editor of two publications: "Western Illustrated" and "Western Culture and Education". Two TV series "Kuroshio" and "Television and Production Theory” were his representative works, written to reflect today’s reality in society and his theory on television production.
Just as his career was on the rise in Taiwan, John decided to apply for immigration to Canada. At that time his workload was extremely heavy and there were a lot of after work engagements. He found himself often working from eight in the morning, until four the next morning. There was very little time left to spend with his family, let alone literary pursuits.
During this turning point, his wife Jane, a very important figure in John’s life, encouraged her husband to get out of this all-too-consuming lifestyle. She was willing to struggle with him through thick and thin, to create a new life for themselves in a new world. Jane also grew up loving literature, calligraphy and art. The two of them work well together, helping and complementing each other perfectly.
They faced their biggest challenge in the first two years after their immigration in 1988. Since John had to stay in Taiwan to finish his work, and oversee the building of the memorial to his grandfather, his wife stayed alone in Canada with their children, while he travelled back and forth between Taiwan and Canada. Even though at that time they did not understand Canadian culture and the regulations here, they had to fulfil their commitment to start a business since they applied as business immigrants. At times, they felt lost and that their future was murky. But they persevered to overcome difficulties one by one, and created a real estate investment company, New Era Investments Inc.,which focused on commercial real estate investments such as shopping plazas in the 1990s.
Having succeeded in business, John refocused on his first love of Chinese literature and art. He also realized that art is critical to our lifestyle, societal trends and our cultural heritage. John founded the New Era Education Foundation to help the community. In addition to helping those in need, John also shares his expertise in the arts, bringing much delight and enjoyment to the local community.
In 2000, John became a member of Chinese Calligraphy Association of Canada after attending a dinner held by the association, and was elected President in 2003. During his term of office, he led the association to participate in many national and international calligraphy exhibitions and events, and hosted an international calligraphy exhibition. He also founded the Canada and Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Association, integrating the different associations of art and calligraphy. He spent a great deal of effort promoting calligraphy and Chinese culture and his efforts are widely recognized in the community.
Master Chen is now Honorary President of Canada China Calligraphy Association, Chair of Canadian International Calligraphy Federation, and Executive Director of New Era Education Foundation. He is also Distinguished Research Fellow at Fudan University and Calligraphy Research Center.
Over the years, aside from hosting or participating in Canadian and international art and calligraphy exhibitions, Master Chen has demonstrated his extensive knowledge of Chinese literature and poetry writing on many occasions at gatherings, exhibitions, seminars, and lectures.
Mr. Chen realizes that Chinese calligraphy is the cumulative result of thousands of years of Chinese culture, integrating literature and philosophy in an art form. He also thinks that the diligent practice of calligraphy can produce better ‘qi’, keep one’s muscles active, and is a great way to keep young and healthy. He regards it his responsibility to teach Chinese calligraphic skills to others.
After decades of practice, Master Chen’s calligraphic art has reached the highest level: "word inside painting, painting inside word". He could use any of the different calligraphic styles to make artistic creations. His magnificent cursive writing style is grand, elegant and flows smoothly, with a strong captivating visual impact.
Master Chen’s calligraphic and literary talent has always been well regarded. In 2011, he was one of ten artists from around the world invited to participate in the "Commemoration of Revolution of 1911” Art Exhibition, featuring traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, oil paintings, lithographs, sculpture and watercolors of nearly 300 works at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. His calligraphy entry created for the exhibition is now in the collection of the National Art Museum.
If you ask him whether he sells his works, he affirms that, unless it is for charity, his works cannot be bought. A few years ago, his calligraphic artwork for the word “dragon” was auctioned off for $10,000 at a fundraising dinner for the Friends of Ping An Medical Foster Home. ‘Master Chen’s word is worth gold’ became a news story in the Toronto Chinese community. The following year, the organization again invited him to create another calligraphic artwork for its charity auction to benefit the handicapped orphans in Beijing.
Mr. Chen is not only an artist, but also a writer. His book, published last year, "Master Chen Han Chung’s Poetry Collection", is a collection of over 300 articles written in the last decades and consists of not only poems he wrote in the past thirty years, but also impromptu verses he composed at gatherings for fun or as a reflection of his feelings. It goes to show that he is always concerned about people and what is going on around him. He likes to write lyrics and poetry to express his life experiences, his observations and recollections. He also gives new interpretations of famous ancient sayings and masterpieces. John is currently writing the "Three Character Classic Calligraphy" , a primer on the art of calligraphy modeled on the “Three Character Classic”.
Soon to be published is another book: "Master Chen Han Chung - Calligraphy Collection", a collection of more than a hundred of his calligraphic works in the different traditional and creative Chinese calligraphic styles.
During this interview, Master Chen took a brush and wrote an impromptu verse to tell his feelings about his life:
My life has been a rainbow
With colourful strokes I pen a legend
A heavy burden on my shoulders
On the long road of benevolence I trudge
BIOGRAPHYOf John Han Chung Chen
John Han Chung Chen was born in 1941 in Penang, Malaysia. Born into an artistic family, Han was quickly immersed into art at a very young age. Han’s shared his artistic abilities with a grandfather, who was an artist in China, a famous aunt who was a renowned poet and high school principal and received numerous awards for helping Malaysian education and lastly, his mother, who was always incredibly passionate about art. Already at the age of 4, Mr. Chen was becoming quite artistically educated as his mother and aunt began teaching him about Chinese Culture and Art. This was the beginning of his life as an artist and of the inspirational influence his family would have on his life.
In his twenties, John Han Chung Chen decided to study at the acclaimed university of Taiwan. His subject of study was Chinese Culture and Art. For 4 years, he devotedly studied, wrote poetry, and was always outstanding in all his classes. Upon graduating university, he decided to become a high school teacher of Chinese Culture and Art.
A few years later, in 1973, at the age of 32, he chose a new career path as a screen and news story writer at a national television station. It is at this television station that Han met Jane. They worked together at the station and after a few years, they were married. Several years later, they had two girls, first Poesy and then Emily.
Throughout his life, Han’s parents continued to support his artistic work and talents from abroad. Their business had brought them to Canada, where they had lived for 20. They missed Han very much and tried to encourage him to join them in North America. In 1998, Han Chung Chen decided leave his established life in China and move his family to Canada to follow new opportunities.
In this new country, Han wanted to immerse himself in Canadian culture and discover the many facets of its art. He studied art at Niagara College in order to gain more knowledge of western style culture and of art. During his studies, he met many people that shared his love of art; artists from Asia, Taiwan, England, etc. Together, they decided to create an association for Chinese Culture and Art, where once a week, they would meet and talk about culture and art.
Han’s has always had great appreciation for art and all the many art forms; his greatest love was in the art of Chinese calligraphy. Ever since he was 10 years old, he studied Chinese calligraphy. He practiced the art every single day. His family even hired a famous calligrapher to teach him the correct method of developing this art form. Today, it has been over 50 years that he has been developing the art of calligraphy. It continues to be his passion and love.
In 2003, Han had become very well know in the Chinese community. He was encouraged to run for President of the Chinese Calligraphy Associate of Canada. In this role, he accomplished many significant tasks, but most of all, he connected Canada with other art cultures around the world such as Singapore, England, Taiwan and China. As president, he found many ways to increase the visibility of Chinese Art and Culture. Every year, he would invite many guests from around the world to learn about various different world art. In 2006, he was easily re-elected as president. People respected him and he had accomplished a great deal in his previous tenure in order to promote Chinese art. During his second term as president, he decided to try something different. In 2007, he invited world artists to congregate in Toronto for a special exhibition. He invested much effort and hard work in order to make this event a success and allow for local people to find out about various cultures. Artists came from Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, London and other cities and introduced art from different parts of the world. It was established that every year a different city would host the event to allow the guests to be integrated and experience various different cultures and people. It was a great success for him and allowed much growth for the art community.
Throughout the years, Han has won many awards and recognitions. In 2007, he was honoured by Shanghai University and hired as a special guest professor for Chinese Culture and Art. In 2011, Han was also selected as one of twelve artists specially chosen by Canada to display his art in an Art Calendar for Canadian artists. In 2012, Han received the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Award for promoting Art and Chinese Culture in Canada. In 2014, the ROM selected Mr. Chen as artist to display his talents at the entrance of the Forbidden City exhibit. He was able to draw very large Chinese characters for the entrance of the exhibit. This Forbidden City collection was brought to Toronto in order to promote Chinese Culture in North America. This shared goal of promoting Chinese Culture, inspired Mr. Chen to provide his work gratis as it would benefit Toronto, China and Canada in exploring cultural attributes. In the last year, Han had the honor of having his work published in a book. It is a wonderful collection of his Chinese calligraphy, an assortment of poems and artwork. Most recently, at the beginning of 2015, a national newspaper had a front page article regarding Mr. Chen. They showed characters Han has created for the lunar New Year horoscope. It was to say goodbye to old year of the horse and welcome the year of the lamb. Han was very creative in making the Chinese horse character appear visually as if it were a herd of running horses, all with different characters. This year, his design for the lamb character is also quite unique as it portrays a lamb as if holding a child. He created this special design with the message to appreciate and be thankful for all parents. His innovative design and calligraphy are quite amazing and his unique style makes his artwork be notable and remembered. A few weeks ago, on February 14, 2015, the ROM once again invited Mr.Chen to create more of his delightful creations and come up with 5 large designs for the year of the lamb. In celebration for the New Year and 2,000 guests, his unique work was displayed for all to see. He was also asked to display other works of art and demonstrate several techniques for all the visitors at the ROM.
John Han Chung Chen is a truly talented individual, as he continues to study art and make exhibits of his personal art work. Each day, he diligently spends 6 hours studying Chinese art and culture and is constantly looking for new ways to learn and grow. He has devoted all his life to the study of Chinese Art and Culture. He put forth all his time and efforts in the past years in Canada to promote Asian culture to Canadians. His genuine wish to expose the world to art and culture is inspirational. Each year, he represents Canada at the International Chinese Culture and Art Study meeting with artists from China, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan. Han believes that art is vital part of life that needs to be promoted and is importance to life, to your wellbeing and to your mind. He is also well known for his generosity and his work with charities as he often donates the sale of his works to organizations such as children with disabilities. All of these factors combined, allow us to realize the greatness of this man.