LÜ PEIFEN AND OTHERS (19TH -20TH CENTURY)
Calligraphy Round Fan Leaves Collection
A set of ten round fan leaves, mounted for framing, ink on silk
Various sizes, each leaf measures approximately 24 cm. (9 ¹⁄₂ in.) in diameter
Artists include Song Quan, Lü Hanfeng, Lin Zhushu, Chen Yusong, Shen Hongzao and others
Each leaf signed, with a total of twenty seals of the artists

NOTE:
An album Correspondence with Ye Yungu by Yi Bingshou from the same collection will be offered in Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy on 3 December.

Chung Chung Hwa Book Company was established by Lu Feikui (1886-1941) and others in Shanghai in 1912. It plays a unique and significant role in publishing and has enormously contributed to modern Chinese cultural and printing history. In May 1927, Chung Hwa Book Company opened a branch in Hong Kong on Queen's Road. Later, the company set up a printing factory in Hong Kong for its long-term development. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Hong Kong attracted many cultured elites to come and live temporarily. The company then gathered these talents and became their meeting place in Hong Kong. Undoubtedly, the Cheng brothers (Cheng Kinlo and Marcus C.C. Cheng), the head of the Hong Kong branch during this period, contributed tremendously to this phenomenon.

Cheng Kinlo (1892-1980), courtesy name Zijian, also known as Yupi and Jiaqi, was born into a scholarly family in Guangdong. He and his sixth brother, Marcus C.C. Cheng (1898-?), were in charge of Chung Hwa Book Company's business in Hong Kong and Macau in the 1930s. His family had been running a tea business in Fujian for decades; thus, they had a deep friendship with the local gentry and cultural figures.

In his early years, Cheng Kinlo served as the principal of Guishan Public Primary School in Xiangshan County, Guangdong. He travelled to Shanghai in the early 1920s and served as the sales director of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, founded by patriotic businessmen Jian Zhaonan and Jian Yujie. During his tenure, he met Huang Manshi (1890-1963), who was also working at Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, and the two became working partners and close friends. Huang Manshi was transferred to Singapore in 1923 to be in charge of the company's business in the Nanyang region. Later, Cheng Kinlo became the director of the Fujian Branch in 1925. Despite being separated by thousands of miles, the two remain close friends.

In the early 1930s, Cheng Kinlo was recruited by Lu Feikui to join Chung Hwa Book Company and served as the director of the South China Region, overseeing the eight branches in Fujian, Guangdong, Shantou, Hong Kong, Singapore, Xiamen, Yunnan and Wuzhou. He was stationed in Hong Kong and oversaw the construction of the Hong Kong printing factory. In 1933, Cheng Kinlo was asked by Lu Feikui to go to Singapore to inspect the business. During this trip, he visited his old friend Huang Manshi, and Huang often accompanied him on his journey to Singapore. Their interaction was well documented in the book Nanyang Sanyue Ji, written by Cheng Kinlo and published by Chung Hwa Book Company in 1935.

Cheng Kinlo was well acquainted with the cultural circles and had a lasting friendship with Xu Beihong (1895-1953). The two met in 1928 when Xu Beihong was invited by Huang Menggui (1885-1965), who was the Minister of Education of Fujian and the elder brother of Huang Manshi, to live in Fuzhou and participate in the first-ever Exhibition of Fine Arts in Fujian. During the 1930s and 1940s, Xu Beihong often visited the Lingnan region. Whenever he was in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, or Macau, Cheng Kinlo and Marcus C.C. Cheng would host the artist and introduce him to the local culture and art circles. On his trips to Hong Kong, Xu Beihong stayed at the residence of the Cheng brothers on Village Road in Happy Valley, where he set up a temporary studio to paint and meet with fellow artists and scholars. Many of the albums in Cheng Kinlo's collection presented in the sale Summer Reverie: Chinese Paintings Online, from 18 August to 1 September 2022, have titleslips inscribed and signed by Xu Beihong in 1938. Xu Beihong was taking photographs of his paintings in the Hong Kong Chung Hwa Book Company Printing Factory that year to publish his infamous paintings album. These titleslips were likely inscribed during Xu's stay at Cheng's residence. At the end of 1941, the Japanese army occupied Hong Kong. Cheng Kinlo and Marcus C.C. Cheng left Hong Kong in 1942 and went to Chongqing and Macau, respectively, to escape the war. Liao Jingwen (1923-2015), Xu Beihong's wife, recalled that Xu and herself would travel from Panxi, risking Japanese air raids to travel through the Jialing River to visit Cheng Kinlo in Chongqing. They would always be delighted to see each other and had long talks, demonstrating a very close relationship.