Foreword by: Charles Chaw
Managing Director Of China Knowledge
I was first acquainted with Mr. Lee through publishing his book “A Passage to China”. It was through this that I had the opportunity to spend more time with him at a more human level, and to have a glimpse into his life’s work in politics, history, art and culture. During this time I came to know more about his pioneering work in establishing Singapore’s first diplomatic contact with China. He laid the groundwork for the first meeting between Lee Kuan Yew, the then Prime Minister of Singapore, in 1979.
Mr. Lee is an all-rounded, multi-talented person. Besides being a prolific writer, from his journalistic days, he is also an artist, a painter and a musician. His is gifted in the Guzheng, defiant yet exquisite in his art and even more outstanding in his role as diplomat.
It is evident that he has been able to use his political role to fuel his passion for the arts, culture and history of the people he meets in different countries and the places he has seen. As a minister of state, he had the opportunity to travel to China and meet some of China’s greatest painters, who were not only a great source of inspiration to his art, but also collaborated with him in several of his works in this book.
This book is not merely a catalogue of Mr. Lee's art work, but more importantly, it is a pictorial record of his work in spreading the culture of China; the relics, monuments, grandiose landscapes and remains of China’s great ancient civilization. This book is the expression of the impact they left on him.
“An artist, music enthusiast, pugilistic master and an educated man” Mr. Lee is the epitome of such a man in life long pursuit of what the Chinese express as “Wen Wu Shuang Quan” (文武双全). His colorful art emanates from his colorful life story.