Epitomizing Taiwan’s Art History

“The Sun Ten Collection tells a story of love,” says Kobi Chen, director of the Sun Ten Museum in Cali­fornia. Hsu’s art collecting avocation sprang from his wish to champion artists and preserve Taiwan’s cultural heritage. His son Charles has inherited these aspira­tions, enlisting the support of his family to protect the artworks. Through love and devotion, father and son have achieved something that deserves our praise.

Hsu Hong-yen (left) devoted himself to collecting art, wishing to put together a precious collection of cultural assets for his native Taiwan. This is Li Mei-shu’s portrait of Hsu and his wife, Ring Lin.

All for love

In 1953 Hsu Hong-yen, founder of Sun Ten Pharma­ceutical, acquired some of his friend Liao Chi-chun’s works, which started him off as an amateur art collector. An eminent painter who, like Hsu, was born in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, Liao encouraged Hsu to support other artists by collecting their works. Out of respect, Hsu never asked artists for a discount. He recorded every detail of provenance and even carefully preserved the letters he received from the artists.

At first Hsu simply wanted to encourage artists and appreciate their work, but as his pharmaceutical business grew and provided him with financial security, he began to wonder: “As a Taiwanese, I love my homeland, but how do I make a contribution?” He decided to do what he could to collect works by Taiwanese artists. In 1979 he began to systematically consult Hsieh Li-fa’s book on Taiwanese art during the Japanese colonial period, aiming to collect all of the artists listed by Hsieh.

Hsiao Chong-ray, emeritus professor of history at National Cheng Kung University and curator of The Homecoming Exhibition of the Sun Ten Collection in 2021, says that it is remarkable that Hsu began to collect art in the 1950s, a turbulent period in Taiwanese history. As the first publicly owned gallery in Taiwan was not established until 1983, Hsu’s efforts predate government initiatives by 30 years and took in many artworks that are worthy of national collections.

Charles Hsu (center, left) and Kobi Chen (far right) founded the Sun Ten Museum in the USA, working together to protect the Sun Ten Collection. This photo shows the farewell exhibition before the collection left for Taiwan. Art historian Hsiao Chong-ray (center, right) was invited to this valedictory event. (courtesy of Hsiao Chong-ray)

Inheriting the dream

Hsu later emigrated to the United States and was diagnosed with cancer towards the end of his life. But his zeal for art collecting never flagged. One day he came across a news article about Kobi Chen’s exhibition at California State University, Long Beach. Having grown up near the Tainan Detention Center and its execution grounds, Chen remembers hearing gunshots before daybreak. After moving to America, he started learning more about the February 28 Incident and social movements in Taiwan. Inspired by these experiences, he created a sculpture entitled Dawn. It shows three distorted faces that represent Taiwan’s tragic history, highlighting the heart-wrenching fact that those who fought bravely for our freedom and democracy also felt fear and anguish in the face of death. Moved by Chen’s deep feelings for Taiwan, Hsu approached him and conveyed a wish to collect his art.

Visiting Hsu’s office, Chen was stunned by the abundance of artworks on display there. As if chatting with an old friend, Hsu told Chen about his dream: “None of these belongs to the Hsu family. One day they will return to Taiwan.” Hearing the grand vision of this frail old man, who had to rely on an oxygen tank to breathe, Chen found himself “already walking into his dream even before he invited me.”

Despite their age difference, the two of them were kindred spirits. Chen promised Hsu that he would do his best to help bring that dream to pass. When Hsu died, his widow, Ring Lin, together with their son Charles, inherited his last wish and set about establishing a gallery at their factory. Chen volunteered to work for this project and even designed the layout of the exhibition rooms himself. The Sun Ten Museum opened its doors in Irvine, California in 1993, giving the public an opportunity to enjoy many of the artworks in Hsu’s collection.

The museum also exhibits the works of contemporary Taiwanese artists without charging them any fees. Some of the artists—such as Liao Shiou-ping and Hung Rui-lin—were so touched by Hsu’s vision that they donated their works to the Sun Ten Collection after their exhibitions.

The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts has held The Homecoming Exhibition of the Sun Ten Collection, displaying a dazzling array of artworks with a view to renewing our awareness of Taiwan’s beauty.

Coming home

For more than 20 years, Charles Hsu and Kobi Chen kept the Sun Ten Collection under their wing while waiting for a propitious moment to send the artworks back to Taiwan.

It was in 2017 that they got in touch with the then minister of culture, Cheng Li-chiun, who was committed to reconstructing Taiwan’s history of art. Finding Cheng’s policies congenial, they decided to donate the Sun Ten Collection to the Ministry of Culture.

In order to come up with a detailed plan for the collection’s future, Cheng visited the Sun Ten Museum in California. Kobi Chen describes a memor­able scene. After their daylong discussion, they went to admire the sunset. Cheng told them that the very last ray of light before the sun sank below the horizon would be green in color, and that whoever caught a glimpse of that light would find happiness. At that moment, a cloud rose and blocked their view. However, just as they were beginning to lose hope, they saw two rays of green light breaking through the intervening cloud. Chen says with a smile: “This was meant to be. The first ray of light was our own happiness, and the second was the happiness of the Taiwanese people. Thanks to the green light, Minister Cheng brought the Sun Ten Collection home.”

The remarkably rich Sun Ten Collection contains artworks from across the past hundred years and contributes substantially to a holistic view of Taiwan’s art history.

Reconstructing Taiwan’s art history

In 2021, after a year of conservation and restoration work, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (­NTMOFA), which has been entrusted with Hsu’s collection, held Taiwanese Art Treasures Preserved Overseas: The Homecoming Exhibition of the Sun Ten Collection. Hsiao Chong-ray, who curated this exhibition, says that the collection is fabulously rich, encompassing 195 artists, from the Japanese painter Kin­ichiro Ishi­kawa (1871-1945) to young professionals born in the 1980s. The four sections of the exhibition cover different ­periods, according to the artists’ years of birth. Not only does the exhibition introduce Taiwan’s art history through paintings, but it also helps contextualize the ways in which people on this island have lived.

In order to reflect the scope of Hsu’s collection, Hsiao wanted every artist to be represented by at least one work. With this principle in mind, he based his selection criteria on the artistic merits and uniqueness of each artwork. For example, the first section of the exhibi­tion includes Liao Chi-chun’s A Scene in the Park, an ex­uber­ant but far from gaudy oil painting that captures the vitality of spring with a bold palette.

Another highlight is the works of Li Mei-shu (1902-1983), who was known for being extremely unwilling to sell his own beloved paintings. Li was moved by Hsu’s repeated visits and gifts of Chinese medicine for his stomach condition. Eventually Li not only agreed to part with three of his works, but also painted a double portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Hsu.

Hsu’s collection embraces different ethnicities and backgrounds, including artists from mainland China who relocated to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War, such as Chen Ting-shih, who went by the pseudonym Ears. Chen’s Day and Night, a print cut on board made from Taiwanese sugarcane bagasse, uses abstract motifs and the rough texture of the board to give a powerful vis­ual effect. As Hsiao explains, “This work is both modern and traditional, both naturalistic and humanistic, expressing an immense energy that evokes cosmic collisions.”

The Sun Ten Collection straddles different eras, supply­ing rich information for a diachronic view of Taiwan’s art history. The fourth section of the exhibition ­features artists born after World War II. In keeping with the postwar pursuit of freedom and democracy, these artists adopted an infinite variety of subjects and art forms. For example, Mei Dean-e’s Why Did the Violin Kill the Musician?—­created while the artist was studying in the United States—turns a violin into a crossbow. By portray­ing a musical instrument as a weapon, Mei’s mixed-­media artwork probes into the artist’s own identity.

Cornered is an oil painting by John Enger Cheng, a second-­generation Taiwanese-American born in the 1980s. Cheng reconsiders Taiwanese history by ­presenting a portrait of a young man whose face is half covered by a mask of the snout of a ferocious beast, and who is wearing a black shirt with a yellow tiger on it—the same as the tiger on the flag of the Republic of Formosa, which briefly existed in 1895 before the island was taken over by the Japanese. Hsiao believes that Taiwan is experiencing a cultural renaissance, and he wants Taiwanese art to be recognized as evidence of the country’s glorious history and civilization. The Sun Ten exhibition is intended to remind the Taiwanese people of their shared origin, so that through mutual sympathy and acceptance, the country may enter a new age where culture will regain its vital importance.

Hsu Hong-yen made an index card for each item in his collection and carefully preserved relevant news articles and letters. These historical documents are valuable for researchers.

A brighter future

The NTMOFA has created a digital version of the homecoming exhibition, which simulates the real exhibition space. It gives us an opportunity to immerse ourselves in the exhibition’s physical environment and to access details of the artworks by clicking on them. In addition, the museum has established a website dedicated to the Sun Ten Collection (ntmofa-sunten.ntmofa.gov.tw). Aiming to open up the collection for wider use, the site provides information about the artists and their works, as well as relevant secondary sources.

Following the example of Sun Ten, the miner-artist Hong Rui-lin’s son Chun-hsiung has donated his father’s works to the Ministry of Culture. The NTMOFA is currently carrying out restoration and research work, and an exhibition is planned for next year.

Charles Hsu compares the homecoming of the Sun Ten Collection to his daughter building a family of her own. Looking at the empty storeroom that once housed the collection, Hsu feels as if his own daughter had got married and left home: there’s a sense of loss, but thinking about her bright future makes him happy for her.

Various kinds of cultural work are being undertaken to reconstruct Taiwan’s art history. In recent years, Taiwan has witnessed many exhibitions focusing on artists of older generations, all of which have attracted much public attention and triggered discussion. Perhaps it will become mainstream practice for the Taiwanese people of today’s generation to turn to art for a more intimate understanding of how their country has come to be what it is today.

Shown here is the artist Kuo Tong-rong’s autograph letter to Hsu.

A Scene in the Park, Liao Chi-chun (1902–1976)

In the Front of a Temple, Chen Chin (1907–1998)

Little Town, Chen Cheng-po (1895–1947)

Ferry Boats, Shiy De-jinn (1923–1981)

Moon, Chin Jun-tso (1922–1983)

Young Fisherman, Chen Huei-dung (b. 1938)