Introduction by Baroness Hooper CMG House of Lord, UK.
It is a great pleasure to introduce Brian and his art of Chinese calligraphy to the peoples of all racial and cultural backgrounds and walks of life.
I first met Brian in Liverpool when I was elected as Member of European Parliament for the constituency of Liverpool at the first direct elections to European Parliament way back in 1979.
Events moved on and I was appointed to be a Minister in the government and also elevated the House of Lords. Brian and I remained friends throughout these 40 years.
Brian Tai- Shen Wang was born and raised in Taiwan, under the upbringing of a strict father, Wang Boxiang a general in the military, there was no room for him for anything other than discipline. He was introduced to Chinese calligraphy and Chinese classical poetry from the age of 4 and from then on was compelled by his father to recite and write pieces of calligraphy of Chinese scriptures from memory every day.
Although Brian received much praise and acclaim for his calligraphy at a young age, winning multiple calligraphy competitions, he did not enjoy the excessive work and stress that deprived him from many opportunities to play with his school friends during childhood.
It wasn’t until Brian went to the University, The Taipei Institute of Technology (TIT) that he began to understand the benefits of such discipline. He found that he was able to incorporate these principles and disciplines that he learnt through calligraphy and meditation, to delve through his studies of science and technological degree.
In 1974, Brian came to England studying at the University of Liverpool in research on material science and extracurricular learning in philosophy. Also his activities as an ice skater and a Tai Chi instructor, Brian cultivated a fresh appreciation and understanding of western views, forms of expression and artistic taste. From 1975 he was invited to give lecture on Chinese art, calligraphy and literature at the WEA (Workers Education Association) and was respectively invited to hold exhibition of his new exploration of Chinese calligraphy to showcase the beauty of this unique art for the eyes of western audiences.
Brian’s first exhibition was held at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in 1976. Brian wrote a booklet “Chinese Characters” to accompany the exhibition in order to introduce how Chinese characters were involved. The Walker’s Arts gallery in Liverpool and the Portico Library in Manchester also held the same exhibition alongside his production of the Chinese classical play of “The Monkey King”. On stage he used the same approach to incorporate Chinese theatre for Western audiences as he did through his various brushstrokes in his calligraphy, by combining the arts of mime and ballet to challenge the barriers of language.
In 1978, Brian’s calligraphy exhibition alongside his theatre production of “Chrysanthemum Fairy” won the UK Ethnic Minority Art Award, presented by playwright Tom Stoppard at the Commonwealth Institute in London.
In 1980, the UK Arts Council include his calligraphy through their exhibition bulletin so facilitating his exhibitions in various cities and galleries of the UK, Europe and in the late 1990’s Boston and New York.
Brian’s efforts in bridging east and west for the arts theatre and communities in the UK gained government recognition and support from the then Prime Minister James Callaghan and later Mrs Thatcher government, who awarded an inner-city partnership grant to build a Chinese Community and Culture Centre called “The Pagoda of The One-Hundred Harmony”. The center was officially open on the 2nd of April 1982 by the HRH Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana.
In the 1990’s Brian started introducing Chinese Herbal medicines into UK and Europe. His Herbal Inn brand has already benefited the well-being of many people over 30 years.
Unlike any Chinese calligraphy I could see from Chinese books Brian’s works are unique beautiful and interesting to people like me who do not speak or read Chinese language. His visual interpretation in bringing life to Chinese calligraphy for the western audiences is greatly successful and widely appreciated.
