Chang Shuhong

CHINA, Zhejiang, Hangzhou

Chang Shuhong was an oil painting artist and specialist in Dunhuang studies. An accomplished oil painter, in 1927, he traveled to France and won several awards in art exhibitions, held sole art exhibitions, and wrote on artistic issues. In 1936, he first observed a painting that was uncovered from the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang at the Guimet Museum of Asian Art in Paris, France. Thereafter, he made a resolution to protect and preserve Chinese national treasures, which sealed his lifelong destiny with the art of Dunhuang, later becoming renowned as the Guardian of Dunhuang Caves.
In 1942, Chang became the vice director of the Dunhuang Research Academy and assumed the role of the director in 1944. He was responsible for employing several young artists who were sent to Dunhuang to work on maintaining and producing traced copies of various artworks. He held various positions, such as the head of Dunhuang Cultural Research Institute and the honorary Dean of the Dunhuang Research Academy. Chang was also active in promoting the bilateral cultural and academic exchange between China and Japan in the study of Dunhuang arts. In 1958, he organized the Dunhuang Cultural Arts Exhibition in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan.
Throughout his entire life, Chang produced numerous traced copies of Dunhuang cave murals. Besides these contributions, Chang used his oil painting skills to capture the various scenes surrounding Dunhuang. All of these paintings were compiled into Collection of Chang Shuhong Oil Painting. After his passing, his family donated over 240 copies of his paintings to the Zhejiang Museum in Hangzhou; the entire collection of his oil paintings, colored paintings, plain sketches, and paintings from nature were displayed separately in the Chang Shuhong Gallery of the museum.