Chen Yongqiang: A Master of Lingnan Painting and the Art Behind Fung Tea
For more than half a century, Chen Yongqiang 陳永鏘 has built an artistic career rooted in the landscape, culture and visual traditions of southern China. His work spans flower-and-bird painting, figures, expressive freehand brushwork and large-scale compositions, creating an artistic language that is unmistakably connected to Lingnan while remaining distinctly his own.
A Nationally Acclaimed Master of Chinese Painting
Chen Yongqiang is a nationally acclaimed master of Chinese painting and a leading representative of the contemporary Lingnan School. A National First-Class Artist and recipient of the State Council Special Government Allowance, his works have been exhibited worldwide and collected by the Great Hall of the People, Zhongnanhai, the National Art Museum of China, and other major institutions. This collaboration brings the vision of a true artistic master into the cultural world of Fung Tea. Guangdong Museum of Art also records that since 1973 his work has repeatedly been selected for national art exhibitions and that he has held more than seventy solo exhibitions in China and abroad.
From Lingnan Tradition to a Voice of His Own
Born in Guangzhou in 1948 with ancestral roots in Xiqiao, Nanhai, Chen Yongqiang developed his artistic foundations through both traditional mentorship and formal academic training. He later graduated from the postgraduate programme in Chinese painting at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1981. His artistic development brought him into contact with leading Lingnan figures including Guan Shanyue, Li Xiongcai, Yang Zhiguang, Lin Fengsu, Chen Jinzhang and Liang Shixiong.
Yet his career has never been defined simply by inheritance. Over decades of practice, Chen developed a personal language in which traditional Chinese painting remains deeply connected to life. Fish, trees, flowers, fruit, birds and figures are not treated merely as subjects to reproduce; they become expressions of vitality, resilience, movement and character.
Chen has spoken of Chinese flower-and-bird painting through the idea of harmony between humanity and nature, while emphasising that meaningful artistic creation must remain connected to real life. This philosophy would become one of the defining threads running through his work.
The Work That Brought National Recognition
An important breakthrough came early in Chen Yongqiang’s career. In 1972, drawing upon his own experience of rural life in Nanhai, he created Fish Leaping (魚躍圖). The painting was selected for a national art exhibition, received an Outstanding Work Award and subsequently became one of the defining works of his early career. It is now held in the collection of the Guangdong Museum of Art.
The importance of Fish Leaping extends beyond its early recognition. The work already reveals qualities that would continue throughout Chen’s career: close observation of life, expressive movement, confident composition and an ability to bring familiar subjects into a distinctly personal visual world.
More Than Five Decades on the Exhibition Stage
The success of Fish Leaping marked the beginning of an artistic journey that would extend across more than five decades. Since 1973, Chen Yongqiang’s works have repeatedly appeared in national art exhibitions, while more than seventy solo exhibitions have been presented in China and abroad. His paintings have entered collections including the National Art Museum of China, Guangdong Museum of Art, Zhejiang Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Guangzhou Museum of Art and Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum, as well as the Great Hall of the People and Zhongnanhai.
His exhibition history reflects the breadth of that career. In 2008, Guangdong Museum of Art presented Trees, Life and Annual Rings. In 2010, Zhejiang Art Museum hosted Trees and Blossoms. In 2012, the National Art Museum of China presented The Spirit of Lingnan. This was followed in 2015 by The Style of a Master at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, in 2017 by Daily Attainment at Guangzhou Museum of Art, and in 2018 by the large-scale Cantonese Elegance and Painting Lingnan art and guqin programme at Guangzhou Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
What emerges from this history is not simply longevity, but continuous development. Subjects changed, scale expanded and techniques evolved, while the connection between painting, nature and the cultural character of Lingnan remained unmistakable.
A Major Retrospective at Guangdong Museum of Art
In 2022, Guangdong Museum of Art presented Diligent, Not Failing the East Wind: Chen Yongqiang Art Exhibition, a major retrospective occupying Galleries 1 through 4. The exhibition brought together representative works stretching from the 1960s and 1970s to his later years, tracing the evolution of his artistic language across different stages of life.
The retrospective was organised around four chapters, moving from his formative years through later periods of artistic exploration. Flower-and-bird painting, figures, detailed brushwork, expressive freehand techniques and monumental works appeared together, revealing the extraordinary range accumulated over decades of practice. In its discussion of the exhibition, Guangdong Museum of Art described Chen Yongqiang as an artist who cannot be overlooked in the continuing history of the Lingnan School.
Rather than celebrating only one recognised masterpiece, the exhibition presented an entire artistic journey. The scale of the retrospective demonstrated how Chen’s work had evolved while remaining anchored in a consistent fascination with nature, life and human experience.
Earth, Life and Sunshine
The phrase “Earth, Life, Sunshine” captures something fundamental in Chen Yongqiang’s artistic world. Nature is not presented as something distant or ornamental. It is alive, changing and filled with personality.
Chrysanthemums, flowering plants, pumpkins, fish and ancient trees may appear to be ordinary subjects, yet Chen gives them weight through brushwork, ink, colour and composition. A flower can carry vitality; an old tree can embody endurance; a seemingly simple fruit can become an exploration of form, texture and life.
This connection between art and lived experience is deliberate. During the public programme accompanying his 2022 retrospective, Chen emphasised that artistic creation should remain close to life, while the Guangdong Museum of Art framed the programme around his celebration of life, earth and sunshine.
The Strength of the Kapok
Among the subjects most closely associated with Chen Yongqiang is the kapok tree.
Kapok holds a distinctive place in the landscape and cultural memory of southern China. In Chen’s paintings, however, it becomes far more than a botanical subject. Heavy trunks, spreading branches and brilliant red blossoms combine to create images of remarkable presence.
The scale of his kapok paintings can be monumental. Rather than presenting nature as something delicate, Chen uses the tree to express vitality, endurance and strength. In his 2022 retrospective, enormous kapok compositions extended across museum walls, allowing visitors to experience the paintings almost as environments rather than isolated works.
This powerful artistic language would become particularly meaningful when Chen Yongqiang’s work entered the cultural world of Fung Tea.
The Artist Behind the Brush
Behind the exhibitions, museum collections and institutional recognition is the act of painting itself.
During the public education programme accompanying the 2022 retrospective, Chen Yongqiang personally demonstrated the use of the Chinese brush, showing audiences how changes in pressure, ink and movement could create variations in line, tone and spatial depth. He described the brush as an important carrier of Chinese culture and used the demonstration to bring audiences closer to the physical language of Chinese painting.
This direct relationship with brush, ink and paper is important to understanding his work. The institutional achievements may measure the scale of his career, but the foundation remains decades of observation, repeated practice and an intimate knowledge of his materials.
When Fine Art Meets Tea
For Fung Tea, the collaboration with Chen Yongqiang is rooted in a shared respect for tradition, craftsmanship and time.
Chinese painting and tea may belong to different disciplines, yet they share an important quality: neither reveals everything at once. A painting invites the viewer to notice brushwork, composition, colour and empty space. Tea reveals itself through aroma, texture, structure and the changes that emerge from one infusion to the next.
Through Chen Yongqiang’s work, these two traditions meet across several Fung Tea collections, each drawing upon a different dimension of his artistic world.
Tea and Painting in Dialogue
Yunling Shuangying 雲嶺雙英
The artistic identity of Yunling Shuangying 雲嶺雙英 draws from two of Chen Yongqiang’s celebrated works, Ancient Kapok Tree (木棉古樹) and Eagle and Kapok (雄鷹木棉).
The ancient kapok carries the strength of age, endurance and deeply rooted life, while the eagle introduces vision, courage and commanding spirit. Together, the two subjects form a visual language of strength and vitality.
These qualities find a natural counterpart in Lao Banzhang tea. Long regarded as one of the crown origins of the Pu-erh world, Lao Banzhang is celebrated for commanding strength, depth and unmistakable mountain character. Within Yunling Shuangying, the character of the paintings and the character of the tea reinforce one another.
The artwork extends across the tea presentation and collector’s packaging, making Chen Yongqiang’s artistic world part of the identity of the collection itself. Tea and painting become two expressions of craftsmanship brought together through culture and time.
Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum
Meilan Zhuju 梅蘭竹菊
Another Fung Tea collaboration turns towards four of the most enduring subjects in classical Chinese painting: plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum.
Collectively known as the Four Gentlemen, the four plants have carried symbolic meaning through generations of Chinese art. Plum blossom suggests resilience, orchid refinement, bamboo integrity and chrysanthemum composure.
Through Chen Yongqiang’s brush, these familiar subjects remain rooted in tradition while carrying the sensitivity, rhythm and vitality of his individual artistic language. Each painting possesses its own temperament, yet the four works become particularly powerful when viewed together.
The same idea carries into tea. Just as each plant reveals a different character through brush and ink, different teas reveal themselves through aroma, texture, structure and time.
The Spirit of Guan Yu
Qiankun Zhengqi 乾坤正氣
A very different dimension of Chen Yongqiang’s artistic range appears through Guan Yu 關羽, one of the most enduring figures in Chinese cultural history.
Guan Yu has long been associated with loyalty, righteousness, courage, integrity and trust. In Chen Yongqiang’s interpretation, these qualities emerge through the authority of the mounted figure, the movement of the composition and the strength of the surrounding calligraphy.
Rather than functioning merely as an illustration of a historical warrior, the painting carries a larger cultural meaning. When brought into a tea collection, it creates a connection between painting, symbolism, history and tea.
A Living Tradition
Chen Yongqiang’s career demonstrates that tradition does not need to remain fixed in the past.
From the national recognition of Fish Leaping in the early 1970s, through decades of exhibitions in major institutions, to a four-gallery retrospective at Guangdong Museum of Art in 2022, his artistic journey represents a continuing dialogue between inheritance and renewal. In the same year, his work also continued to reach wider audiences through the Art into Thousands of Homes: 2022 Chen Yongqiang Touring Exhibition, further extending the public presentation of his art.
Tea carries a similar relationship with time. Its traditions are inherited, yet every mountain, every harvest and every generation of tea makers gives those traditions another expression.
For Fung Tea, this is what makes the collaboration with Chen Yongqiang 陳永鏘 meaningful. It is not simply the placement of artwork onto tea packaging. It is a meeting between art, tea, craftsmanship, culture and time.
A painting can carry the spirit of an artist across generations. A tea can preserve the character of its origin and continue transforming through time.
Art gives the collection its spirit. Tea gives it life. Time gives both their depth.
