The Spirit of “Taking Recreation in Art”: The Pursuit of Art by Tsang Wing-kwong

Tsang Wing-kwong (1926–2005), calligrapher, seal-engraving artist and native of Huiyang, Guangdong. Tsang Wing-kwong belonged to the first-generation of Mainland intellectual immigrants settling in post-1949 Hong Kong. In the 1950s and 60s, he took up teaching in a secondary school and the Hong Kong Linghai Academy of Art until he gave up his tenure in late 1974 to launch China’s first post-war magazine devoted to the art of calligraphy and seal-engraving, the bi-monthly Shupu (書譜). Serving as its executive editor from its inception to 1983, Tsang has borne important witness to the establishment and development of the publication, having also contributed to a remarkable series of articles on the history and appreciation of calligraphy and seal-engraving under the noms de plume of Chu Tianxu, Xin Zhuang and Lu Tai. In 1960, he joined the Geng Zi Calligraphy and Painting Society and served as a coordinator from the 1990s until his death in 2005. For all his life he shunned the limelight and worked behind the scenes, always maintaining a low profile. In achieving the ideal of “moving in art”, he dedicated his life to the pursuit of art and always strove to attain spiritual elevation unencumbered by material or earthly concerns.
Essays published on the art of Tsang Wing-kwong have been few and far between during his time. It is therefore the purpose of this essay to shed new and fuller light on his artistic pursuits from three different perspectives: his life, his affinity with Shupu and his work of art.