A New Page of Literati Painting from Singapore and Malaysia: A Study of Chen Wen Hsi and Chung Chen Sun

In the early twentieth century, Chinese literati painting was embroiled in arguments on the relationship between ancient and modern or east and west. Therefore, the artistic practices of Wu Changshuo, Chen Shizeng, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong and so on, were in response to this development. However, with the occurrence of World War ii and changes in the post-war situation, literati painting underwent further, new changes in different regions. This article intends to discuss the overseas Chinese painters Chen Wen Hsi and Chung Chen Sun as examples in exploring the new development of literati painting in Singapore and Malaysia in the second half of the twentieth century. Chen Wen Hsi was born in Jieyang County, Guangdong Province in 1906. He studied at Shanghai Fine Arts College and Xinhua Art College. He went to Singapore and held an exhibition in 1948. In 1950, he taught at The Chinese High School, and the following year also began teaching Chinese ink painting at Nanyang Fine Arts College. Chung Chen Sun, a native of Mei County, Guangdong Province, was born in 1935 in Malacca, Malaysia. In 1953, he entered the Department of Art Education of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, which was founded by Lim Hak Tai. Chung was inspired by predecessors such as Cheong Soo-pien, Chen Wen Hsi and Chen Chong-swee who had pursued the Nanyang style. In 1967, Chung founded the Malaysian Academy of Art. Their styles of painting not only incorporate the Eastern aesthetics and Western theory but also include diverse elements. Their paintings wrote a new page in the history of literati painting during the Cold War era.