Hou Tsui Hsing, Iron Rose Bloomed from the Green House

Chloe Chen
Photo By Wen Weiting

Obsessed with creation and never regret, more than 50 years of sharpening a sword

The road of art seems beautiful and pleasant , but it is really not easy to walk steadily and well. Along the endless road, most people changed paths at the first turn, only few people insisted on it. Hou Tsui Hsing chose the steps and followed through for the purpose of making this world more beautiful. Today, this magazine interviewed a renowned national treasure artist Hou Tsui Hsing to explore her path of art, and how she moved towards brilliance.

On this day, we are honored to come to Hou Tsui Hsing's studio. First, we passed through her art gallery, filled with healing power and large-scale paintings. We were all impressed by the mesmerizing colors at the first sight. It is really charming and irresistible. While I wanted to stop and appreciate further, a pleasant voice greeted us "Hi, how are you!" from the the other end of array of paintings. A very elegant lady walked slowly towards us, waving her hand gracefully, with a friendly smile, the same kind of charming charisma as her paintings . The overall first impression was really hard for people to hold back to admire her, "Wow, what a beautiful person!" Just like the paintings in front of you, people can't take their eyes off.

The princess who came out of the canvas exudes positive energy at all time

Hou Tsui Hsing said that she is optimistic by nature. In her paintings, she favors soft and bright colors and the mood is usually lively and happy, not prevailing or dominating in anyway . Every corner of the painting has its own story to tell. When she drew the sky, she didn’t depict the shape of the cloud, instead, she used color blocks and let the audiences follow their mind to imagine the sky. Her tender kindness and thoughtfulness could be traced back to the ways she was brought up.

"I am grateful to my parents for making me positive and optimistic." Hou Tsui Hsing mentioned with a smile that she grew up in a loving family and gave herself a lot of space and support. Even when her father who expected her to take over the family business learned that his princess wants to become an artist instead of entrepreneur, yet still support her unconditionally so she could indulge in the world of art without other hold back.

She is full of talent and dedication. She took flight lessons to experience how the clouds floating in the sky and diving lessons just to see the ocean floors. She said “I can stare at a rock for a whole day”. Because she wanted to feel, not just seeing, and believed every “being” has a soul. That’s why why when she painted she did not just copy the shape instead, she followed her feelings. May be that’s why she sees things differently and she really enjoyed. With this kind of personality, she always pushed herself to achieve higher level in every ground. In the early days, she studied sketching with Li Shiqiao, a senior Taiwanese painter, watercolour and sketching with Lu Jizheng, ink painting with Fu Yufu, modeling with Yang Yingfeng, and seal carving with Fu Zongyao. Later, she studied under Yan Yunlian, a pioneer in abstract and interior design in Taiwan, for oil, tempera, pastel and gelatin for eight years.

She moved to the United States in 1973. First she entered at NYU, and then University of Oklahoma in 1976 to study for a master's degree in environmental arts. In 1979, she entered Stanford University for further Ph.D. classes. After living in the United States for many years, she returned to Taiwan in 1981 and taught in the Department of Home Economics and the Institute of Home Economics at the Cultural University, and later transferred to teach art appreciation classes at National Taiwan University.

Hou Tsui Hsing may look like a flower in the greenhouse, but she is not at all comfortable in it. She found nutrients on her own, and enthusiastically bloomed firm and beautiful without thorns for herself. It is not an exaggeration to say that she has an important place in the history of abstract art in Taiwan.

Riding the wind and waves, took adversity as nutrients

Even if she had talent and all king of social resources, life may not as smooth sailing as it seemed. Nevertheless ,she always looked for the good sides, not bad ones. In fact, she did experience campus bullying due to the peer’s jealousness when she was very young. But she tried to maintain her kindness and convince herself to rationalize those behaviors as "maybe I have something that they can't get, and they feel very unhappy about it. I should understand that they are in a bad mood. If I reported the incidences , that may result in a bad outcome and even punishment to them”. Even though she was the victim of the campus bullying, she maintained her kindness and thoughtfulness and chose to forgive. This philosophy of kindness is the source of her happiness in life.

After she graduated, people never stopped taking advantage of her good heart, her almost naive kind of good heart. One incidence she recalled was in 2004, during the low ebb of her mother's death, a so-called good friend took some of her very precious collections and later threatened her life as some villains were involved and confiscated those paintings. She took highly for the friendship but ended up with a total betrayal because of greed .

With such an unpleasant experience, Hou Tsui Hsing told herself that she should work harder and create her own treasures. "When the judgement day comes, they will be punished for what they had committed ." She was not in a hurry to pursue them. Instead, she transferred focus on painting. Through the art creation she regained strength and healing power and the positive attitude energy showed in her paintings .

Creativity never stopped , leading the new trend of art

Not only that, she dedicated more than 20 years teaching at the Taiwan University just for one goal which was to try to feed back to the society. She would offer everything she had learned and passed it to the next generation. "Most of my students are really amazing! Some of them actually became prominent art collectors”. Hou Tsui Hsing is very proud of what she had achieved to inspire the students into the field of art. Giving speeches, column writing, teaching classes and then seeing good outcomes are very rewarding things to her.

"Never waste time on doing something meaningless. People should even learn how to avoid it in the first place". Every step Hou Tsui Hsing took, she had a plan on it and determined to make herself a better person. Occasionally she’d envy those people who could go out with friends and chatting the whole afternoon over a tea, but it often ended as she would spend most of the time in observing and studying things surrounding her. With such a personality, there is always not enough time for herself. With the mind always spinning, she never run out of inspiration for her next creations.

She is always at the forefront in the art field, and does not catalogue or define her style of painting. From country road to deep outer space, she just followed her heart and translated on the canvas. As early as decades ago, she had started working on the virtual art and animation. She’d spend hours talking with the engineers for the knowledge that she is not familiar with. All she wanted was to present the best part of her works to the audiences. Now, her new project is to put more works on the NFT in the Metaverse world.

For her achievement, she gives the credits to her enthusiastic passion to pursue a better world. She may look gracious and elegant and somewhat naive, deep inside of her heart she is very well determined to keep her “original intension” to offer her best part and contribute to a better world. This is the story of her, bloomed like an iron rose from the greenhouse.

Hou Tsui Hsing

Education
University of Oklahoma
Master of Environmental Arts
Stanford University
Doctoral Program of the Institute of Art

Experience
eTaught in the Department of Home Economics and the Institute of Home Economics at Cultural University, and was employed by National Taiwan University to teach art appreciation. He has held exhibitions such as Oklahoma State University Art Museum solo exhibition, Taichung Taiwan Provincial Art Museum solo exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum "Beauty Unlimited - Hou Tsui Hsing's Painting World" solo exhibition , National Museum of History "Abstract New Realm" solo exhibition, Fengjia Art Museum "Abstract • Symphony" solo exhibition, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall Zhongshan National Gallery "Cosmos Micro-Retrospective Exhibition of Hou Tsui Hsing's Creation".

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繁體中文版 : Hou Tsui Hsing, Iron Rose Bloomed from the Green House.