Chang Shuhong

Chang Shuhong ( Chinese  常 書 鴻  /  常 书 鸿 , Pinyin Cháng Shūhǒng , born April 6, 1904 in Hangzhou , date of birth according to the personnel records of the Institut franco-chinois in Lyon: March 21, 1905; † 1994 ) was a Chinese painter and art historian. He studied and painted in France in the 1930s. In 1936 he returned to China and dedicated himself to the preservation of the historical treasures in Dunhuang until the end of his life .

Biographical

Chang Shuhong comes from a Manchu family . In 1923 he received his diploma in dyeing and weaving from the Industrial School of Zhejiang Province in Hangzhou, now the Zhejiang Polytechnic University . In 1928 he went to Lyon at his own expense , where he enrolled in November as a “member of the French-Chinese Institute”. He studied at the École municipale de tissage de Lyon and at the École des beaux-arts de Lyon . After three years he concentrated exclusively on studying oil painting . After 13 years he left Lyon and in 1932 went to Paris to the École des Beaux Arts , where he painted numerous portraits and still lifes .

During his stay in France he took part in numerous art exhibitions and was often awarded first prize. He was one of the first Chinese artists whose works were state-bought in France and exhibited in the national museums in Lyon and Paris. In 1936 he returned to China, where he took on several administrative and training positions - including teaching at the National Art School in 1937 - and continued to exhibit his work ( Kunming 1940).

In Paris he had read Paul Pelliot's Les Grottos de Touen-houang and decided to forego a career as a painter in order to devote himself to saving Dunhuang's cultural heritage . In 1942 he took over the management of the Dunhuang Relics Research Institute . In 1943 he and his family moved to Dunhuang. There he worked under the most adverse conditions together with employees on the maintenance of the Mogao grottoes .

The marriage founded in 1941 with Chen Zhixiu was divorced in 1945. Chang later married Li Chengxian, who accompanied him to work in Dunhuang until the end of his life. Li Chengxian continued the work in Mogao Grottoes after Chang Shuhong's death until she died of cancer in 2003. The daughter Chang Shana (1931) and the son Chang Jialing (1941) emerged from the first marriage. In his second marriage, Chang had two children: Jiahuang (1950) and Jiagao (1953).

Dunhuang Relics Research Institute

Two years after its founding in 1942, the Dunhuang Relics Research Institute was closed by the Guomindang government. During the Cultural Revolution , the re-established Dunhuang Relics Research Institute was attacked despite the support of Zhou Enlai . Chang and his family were evicted from their home and forced to live in a pigsty. Due to the work of Chang Shuhong and his staff, the Mogao Caves are now accessible and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Chang Shuhong Gallery

In 1999, his family donated 40 paintings by Chang to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum . These are presented as a permanent exhibition in the Chang Shuhong Gallery .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chang Shuhong (1905-1994) . Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
2. ↑ Li Chengxian . China Culture (.org). Archived from the original on November 13, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 17, 2014.  
3. ↑ global2003Oct-1 . sgiquarterly.org. Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 17, 2014. 
4. ↑ Chang . zjmuseum.com. Retrieved April 17, 2014.

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Chang is the family name here, Shuhong is the first name.