Paul Pei-Jen Hau

Paul Pei-Jen Hau, the noted Chinese-American painter, is the founder of the American Society for the Advancement of Chinese Arts (ASACA). Pei-Jen Hau was born into a family of artists in Liaoning Province, China, in 1917. He studied calligraphy, poetry, and painting under the Chinese masters, Huang Bin-Hong and Zheng Shi-Qian. He attended the National Normal University in Beijing and completed studies at Kyushu Imperial University in Japan. He moved from mainland China to Hong Kong in 1948 and emigrated to the US in 1956.

Pei-jen Hau’s work is exhibited internationally. Because of the break in Sino-American relations in the sixties and seventies, Hau says, “I had to study and explore new approaches and try to form my own painting style, as every Chinese painter since the Song Dynasty had to do.” Hau not only made great achievements in Chinese ink-painting, but he also learned and applied many Western techniques to his work, such as the principles of light used by the impressionists and the ideas of form put forth by abstract artists. Hau says, “I believe in carrying on the tradition of Chinese painting, while trying new things and borrowing strong points from others.” In fusing traditional Chinese painting with abstract Western style, Hau has made innovative use of strong color often spilling the color and ink directly onto the paper.

“Various art forms are closely interrelated.” As a child Hau studied poetry, music, and calligraphy as well as painting. By the time he was a teenager he was able to recite hundreds of ancient poems and copy examples of ancient calligraphy. Hau has published three novels, a history of sociology, and a text on the principles of Chinese art. Color plates of his work has been published in Selected Paintings of Pei-Jen Hau, Zhang Xiaojiang, ed. and trans., Foreign Languages Press (Beijing, 1997). He is an honorary professor of Tianjin Institute of Art, Tianjin, China. At 85 Mr. Hau is still painting and teaching brush painting at the Pacific Art League where he has taught since 1957.

He has had major exhibits in the deYoung Museum in San Francisco, The San Jose Museum of Art, DeSaisset Museum in Santa Clara, the University of California, Berkeley.

Major Events of Pei-Jen Hau’s Artistic Career

One-Man Exhibitions