Heron Club: Watch over the common earthly homeland
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The original site of Zhou's former residence at No. 35 Huangyan Road, Gulangyu Island
Caption:
On January 27, 1930, the Daily News in Perth, Australia, sent a message that rarely reported the award of the young Chinese painter Zhou Tingxu: "At the Royal Academy, I don't know if there are more successful students than the outstanding Chinese young Zhou Tingxu? Mr. Zhou Tingxu received medals and prize money in every competition he participated in. ”
"Zhou is not only a gifted painter, but also popular with his humble demeanor. He embraces Western culture without forgetting ancient traditions... His English is unparalleled. ”
Ninety years later, someone read this phrase in the vast literature and still has reason to be excited and proud of it. Because Zhou Tingxu, a young Chinese man who was so unceasingly praised by the Daily News ninety years ago, was born in Gulangyu Island.
Daily News, Perth, Australia, 27 January 1930
1. Gulangyu Zhou clan
Born on April 27, 1903, Zhou Tingxu was the second son of the priest Zhou Zhizhen (Zhou Shouqing). In 1897, Zhou Zhizhen succeeded his elder brother Zhou Zhide (1854-?) and was ordained as the pastor of Taishan Hall in Xiamen. Zhou Zhide was sent to Changting for missionary work. The Zhou brothers were from the Hui'an clan, and both were well-known Chinese priests in southern Fujian at that time. Like Lin Zhicheng, the pastor father of Lin Yutang, the Zhou brothers are open-minded, broad-minded, willing to accept new things, and believe that only when children receive a new education can they have a future. Thanks to their priesthood, they were able to send their children to church schools for free education.
Although the priest was not a rich man in Gulangyu Island, where the rich were dense at that time, the priest's salary was enough to maintain a decent life. At the very least, the Zhou brothers built two villas at the foot of Sunlight Rock (No. 35 and No. 37 Huangyan Road), of which No. 37 Huangyan Road was the "Xiamen Girls' School" founded by Zhou Zhizhen, also known as "Higher Girls' School", also known as "Shangnu School", which was the first girls' school founded by the Chinese in Gulangyu Island. It is said that Lin Qiaozhi studied at this school. The Zhou brothers' emphasis on education is evident from this.
The Zhou brothers' emphasis on education has led to the emergence of talents in the Zhou family. Zhou Zhide, the eldest brother of the Zhou clan, and his wife Xie Shi (1862-?) She is a returned overseas Chinese from Nanyang, thrifty and virtuous, and a well-known pastor. They have two sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Zhou Zongqiao (Zhou Senyou), was a doctor of medicine in the United States, and married Lu Tiande, the eldest daughter of Lu Shuzhang, a famous scholar of Gulangyu Island and the ancestor of Pinyin Yuanzu. The second son was zhou Jianming (1891-1984), a well-known linguist and founder of the Department of Foreign Languages of Xiamen University. The most striking is the young daughter Zhou Shu'an (1894-1974). She is the pioneer of China's modern music industry, the first professional vocal educator in modern China, the first female choral conductor, the first female composer, and one of the first batch of 10 publicly funded beauty students in China. In Gulangyu Island, Zhou Shu'an's second sister, Zhou Shujian, is known to everyone, she is the pastor of the Gospel Church pastor Chen Qiuqing, and the "Young Apprentices' Meeting" she organized in the Gospel Church has become the cradle of gulangyu Island's early music enlightenment education.
Zhou Discernment (1891-1984)
Compared to his amazing cousins who are either linguists or musicians, Zhou Tingxu as an artist does not seem particularly dazzling. We can only know from limited information that Zhou Tingxu's mother, Bai Jie, was the third daughter of Bai Rui'an, the owner of the famous Cuijing Hall in Gulangyu At that time, and they had three sons and five daughters, and Zhou Tingxu was the second eldest. His elder brother, Zhou Tingjie, inherited his father's business as a pastor and has been in the United States since 1949 and has never been married. The eldest daughter, Zhou Moshi, married Zhuo Miancheng, a comprador of the Minnan region of the Mobil Oil Company, and the world-famous pianist, Fu Cong's wife Zhuo Yilong, was their daughter. The second daughter, Zhou Moxi, graduated from Peking Union Nurses College in 1930 and married Zhang Fuxing, an ophthalmologist, and died in 1961. The fourth daughter, Zhou Mozhi, is a doctor at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The youngest daughter, Chow Mo Dao, went to Hong Kong after 1949 and later worked as a biology teacher at the University of Hong Kong, and in her 50s married the Dean of the University of Hong Kong School of Medicine, the British Wang Guodong (Chinese name), and later settled in Australia.
Zhou Shu'an (1894-1974)
Music and art seem to be particularly related to the Zhou brothers and sisters. In fact, at that time, Gulangyu Island was filled with the atmosphere of music and art. From the "singing tour" of Huaide Kindergarten, to Yangyuan Primary School, Huairen Girls' School, Yude Girls' School, and then to boys' schools such as Xunyuan College and Yinghua College, there are music classes and painting classes. And every Sunday morning, the sound of piano and song from the Church of Concorde and the Church of the Gospel, every night, you can also hear the sound of songs and pianos flowing from the lights of the courtyard... The Zhou brothers and sisters are only closer, Zhou Shu'an and Zhou Shujian sisters are the messengers of music, and Zhuo Yilong's piano has endured for a long time.
Zhou Tingxu, on the other hand, is the prince of art, and he will set off to go to his hometown, carrying the sky and waves, deep streets and alleys of Gulangyu Island in his hometown. Years later, the hometown will be presented in his pen, with bright and pure color blocks, with gentle and delicate brushstrokes, with an unheated confession.
Gulangyu Island is too small, and teenagers have to travel far. In 1917, the 14-year-old teenager Zhou Tingxu went north to Tianjin Xinxue Academy to study.
Second, the road to the rising sun
I don't know why Zhou Zhizhen would give up the near and far and send the 14-year-old Zhou Tingxu to study at the London missionary society in tiensin, thousands of miles away, instead of the near-present Gulangyu Yinghua Academy (anglo-chinese college in kulangsu)? Gulangyu Yinghua College and Tianjin Xinxue College are both schools founded by the London Missionary Association in the United Kingdom. Schools with the same name are available in Malaysia and Hong Kong. At that time, Gulangyu Yinghua College was famous in Southeast Asia for its purpose of "sincerity", the whole-person education concept of "morality, intelligence, physical beauty", and the advantages of English, music and sports, and became a famous school in the south. Why did Zhou Tingxu not study at yinghua academy in his hometown at that time, but travel thousands of miles to Tianjin to study at Xinxue Academy, presumably Zhou Zhizhen had his own considerations, and there was no way to ask here.
Three years later, in 1920, Zhou Tingxu graduated from Tianjin Xinxue Academy. His path to study seemed to have spread out like a red carpet at his feet. First, he went straight to Harvard University in the United States to study history and archaeology. After about a semester, Zhou Tingxu obviously felt that this was not his liking. He found that his interest in painting was far greater than that. In 1921, he went to the School of Fine Arts and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study painting with Irwin Hoffman. This is by no means rich and willful, because Zhou Tingxu is not a "rich second generation". He simply listens to the call of his heart, responds to his inner voice, follows his footsteps in his heart, follows his destiny, nothing more. Van Gogh and Gauguin are also such an inseparable arrangement of fate.
In just two years, Zhou had to leave Boston. The father's stern instructions could not be disobeyed. From Boston to London, he studied and joined his sister. This arrangement is really a well-intentioned father, but Zhou Tingxu once again fled, this time calling him to paris, the capital of art. The ecole de baux arts in Paris is where Zhou Tingxu went straight to. However, his father's life was difficult to violate, and he threatened to interrupt the allowance, forcing Zhou Tingxu to return to England. In 1924, Zhou Tingxu first registered with the University of London. But I suspect that the University of London was just a stopgap measure for Chow, because soon, in February 1925, he was officially admitted to the Royal College of Art. What you want with all your heart and the end of your life is the state of Zhou Tingxu's dream.
His student visas ran from February 1925 to February 1930. From the age of 22 to 27, five years, zhou Tingxu's life was full of glory years officially opened.
In 1925, he won the Landseer Award for Best Work. You know, he was only a newly enrolled freshman at the Royal Academy of Arts. Even more fortunately, he also won a Royal Academy Scholarship sponsored by the Royal Family. This scholarship not only allowed him to have no worries about food and clothing during his studies in the UK, but more importantly, he also had free access to teaching equipment, models and art studios.
And that's just the beginning. 1926 was the year when Zhou Tingxu's life was fully opened. In this year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Artists, becoming the only foreign member of the Society. Zhou Tingxu was 23 years old at the time. That year, he was awarded the Royal Academy Silver Medal and the Creswick Prize.
Since then, Zhou Tingxu has opened the mode of his award-winning professional households. Between 1925 and 1930, as a student at the Royal College of Art, Zhou received all the prizes in every competition he participated in.
In 1928, he was awarded the Royal Acaddemy Silver Medal for Figure Painting, the Salon Medal for Oil Painting and the second Armitage Prize in London.
In 1929, he won the Turner Prize royal academy gold medal for landscape paiting for "Yorkshire Scenery". Zhou Tingxu is the only Chinese to receive this award.
During his time at the Royal Academy of Arts, Chow studied under Sir George Clausen, Sir Walter Russel and Mr. Charles Sims. Charles Sims) and other famous teachers. In addition to systematically receiving academic Western art education, Zhou Tingxu spent a lot of time on artistic practice. He didn't waste a minute. Every summer, he can't wait to set off. He traveled throughout most of the Countryside of England. He painted outdoors for a long time, the ancient monastery of Cornwall in the southwest and the amphitheater on the cliffs and the small fishing village of Polperro fishing boats and villages, the quiet and elegant Cambridgeshire in the East Of England, the quiet and pure of the northern countryside and the lake area, the simplicity and solemnity of the Scottish countryside, under the brush of Zhou Tingxu, with bright and warm color blocks, with delicate and full brushstrokes, with lines and flat surfaces, presenting oriental and subtle and freehand.
Perhaps this is an important reason why Zhou Tingxu's paintings are popular in Britain. Since 1926, Zhou Tingxu has actively participated in various exhibitions. He initially held exhibitions at the New England Art Club and even sent his early paintings to salons and royal academies in France. An oil painting entitled "A Sussex Village" was unveiled at the Royal Society Autumn Exhibition, London in 1926, the Manchaster City Art Gallery in 1927 and the To the Olham in 1928.
1929 was the first year of Zhou Tingxu's solo exhibition. His first solo exhibition was held at the claridge gallery. Queen Mary led the royal family to the scene, shook hands with the young Chinese painter and congratulated, "and bought one of his paintings for 250 pounds", all of which were sold out within a few days of the royal visit. The Queen of England's visit to appreciate the light is a great blessing to Zhou Tingxu. In the same year, Zhou Tingxu also held exhibitions of joseph duveen exhibitions in France and London.
On January 27, 1930, the Daily News of Perth, Australia, reported on The Rare News that Chow Ting-wook had won the Turner Prize, calling it the Most Successful Student at the Royal Academy of Arts, a statement apparently quoted from a British author, most likely relayed from a British newspaper. This means that the British high society accepts and appreciates this young Chinese painter. Perhaps because of this, after Zhou Tingxu's student visa expired in February 1930, Zhou Tingxu was still fortunate enough to be allowed to follow the director of the Chinese branch of the British Museum, the famous Orientalist Lawrence. Laurence binyoun studied Oriental art. It was during this period that Zhou Tingxu gained an unprecedented understanding and understanding of traditional Chinese culture and art. Under the auspices of the China Association, Zhou Tingxu had a solo exhibition in London and, in the same year, at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool.
Zhou Tingxu was so lucky. He only needs to use the brush to sincerely describe what he sees and feels, and he can gain people's understanding. This understanding made people willing to give generously and pay for his paintings. This gave him a good life, a good life, a good life. Finally, he was homesick. With the income from the sale of paintings, it is enough for him to calmly return to China to visit his relatives.
At the end of 1930, Zhou Tingxu returned by boat. At this time, it was exactly ten years since he went to China and went to the United States and then left Foreland. In this decade, from 1920 to 1930, Zhou Tingxu was as famous as his name suggested, and the rising sun rose in the east and shone under the western sky.
In the summer of 1931, Zhou Tingxu returned to China.
This literature is provided by Mr. Fang Biyong, thank you very much!
Past Introduction
Gulangyu Island Past: The Japanese guard post in front of the "Boathouse" and the Salvation Hospital Poor People's Clinic
Gulangyu Past: Who was the earliest bully of Yude Girls' School?
Xiamen Memory: A hundred years ago, a foreigner described China's houses, chairs and women this way
Xiamen Memory: During the Opium War, the British who came to China praised the Xiamen people and believed that the Xiamen people were friendly
Xiamen Memories: A mysterious island city in the eyes of British missionaries in the nineteenth century
Zhan Zhaoxia: Graduated from Chinese Min University (undergraduate) Xiamen University (master's degree)
Gulangyu Research Center, Xiamen Academy of Social Sciences
Director of the Editorial Department of Gulangyu Research
Special librarian of literature and history of the Xiamen Municipal Cppcc Committee
Author: "Gulangyu Island, The Past and the Past"
Gulangyu Scholars (co-authored with Hong Buren)
The Rise of Xiamen (translated by Wu Zhenqiang, Zhan Zhaoxia, Hu Shuyang)
The Story of the 1922 Xiamen
(Alfred. Nielsen by Zhan Zhaoxia, compiled)
lookers Heron Club Watch over the common earthly homeland