12 Facts About Fang Zhaoling

Fang Zhaoling, known as Lydia Fong, was a Chinese painter and calligrapher.

Fang Zhaoling received classical education at home with tutors and a solid modern education at elite Western-style schools, attaining a sound education in both Chinese and European terms that enabled her to cross cultural boundaries with comparative ease.

Fang Zhaoling was the mother of Hong Kong politician Anson Chan.

Fang Zhaoling studied under great artists like Qian Songyan and Chen Jiucun, Chao Shao-an and Chang Dai-chien and attended both the University of Hong Kong and the University of Oxford.

Fang Zhaoling added texture to rocky surfaces in her work by scrunching paper into balls and dabbing them in ink, which she used often in her work through the 1980s and beyond.

Fang Zhaoling took part in a considerable number of international exhibitions, and was inspired by her extensive travels in Japan, America, Europe and Asia in the second half of the twentieth century.

Fang Zhaoling returned to China more frequently in the 1970s.

Fang Zhaoling continued to work throughout her 80s, and in 1996 received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Hong Kong.

Fang Zhaoling held her first solo show at the Fung Ping Shan Library in 1955, University of Hong Kong.

In 2005, Fang Zhaoling donated 42 of her paintings to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Fang Zhaoling escaped with her family to Guilin, Tianjin and Shanghai in China due to war and resettled in Hong Kong in 1948.

In 2003, Fang Zhaoling was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star for her accomplishments in Chinese ink painting and calligraphy.