RAS Shanghai LECTURE

Tuesday 6th March 2012 at 7.00pm

Tavern, Radisson Plaza Xingguo Hotel 78 Xing Guo Road, Shanghai

兴国宾馆上海市兴国路78号

GRETCHEN LIU

ON

ART AND FRIENDSHIP: A SHANGHAI STORY 1925 – 1937

Liu Kang (1911-2004) belonged to a generation of artists who came of age at a time of crisis and upheaval in China. Born in Fujian Province and raised in Malaya, he arrived in Shanghai in 1925 when the city had become the undisputed centre for the study of Western art. His years at the Shanghai Art Academy, as student (1926-28) and teacher (1933-37), coincided with a brief but exhilarating age for art and design in Shanghai. Liu Haisu, the founder of the Shanghai Art Academy, became not only a mentor but also a great friend. Fou Lei, the writer, critic, and translator of the great French novels into Chinese, was another close friend.

In 1933 Liu Kang became the youngest professor hired by the Shanghai Art Academy. In 1937, as Shanghai fell to the Japanese, he left for Malaya, then post World War Two to Singapore where he is venerated as a pioneer artist and one of the founders of the “Nanyang Style” in the 1950s. He continued to paint, teach, write and contribute to the burgeoning art scene. Many of his Shanghai classmates and teachers were far less fortunate in their artistic pursuits. More than 30 years passed before Liu Kang returned to Shanghai and a reunion with Liu Haisu. By then, Shanghai was a very different place and this early chapter in China’s art history was virtually forgotten.

Since the 1980s there has been a resurgence of interest in the art and artists of the 1920s-30s. Research is often difficult as so many original materials have been lost or destroyed. This presentation draws on Liu Kang’s photographs, letters and paintings, telling his story against the larger backdrop of the cultural and social history of Shanghai.

A former journalist, book editor and author with a special interest in architecture, visual heritage and the history of travel, Gretchen Liu is the author of a dozen books on Singapore and its history including the classic A Pictorial History of Singapore 1819-2000 (1999). She was involved in the restoration of Raffles Hotel as curator of the Raffles Hotel Collection and authored several books for the hotel. She continued to work with the Raffles group on their properties in London, Hamburg, Cambodia as well as the Raffles Beijing Hotel. She is married to the architect-urban planner Liu Thai Ker and is the daughter-in-law of Liu Kang. She is currently working on a book that explores Liu Kang’s Shanghai experiences.

Entrance: RMB 30.00 (RAS members) and RMB 80.00 (non-members). Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption, prior to the RAS Lecture. Membership applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.

To RSVP: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn