Lost Chinese treasures return home

Ching Banlee (1899-1965), a Filipino entrepreneur of Chinese descent and a great admirer of Chinese culture, devoted his entire life to acquiring hundreds of precious ink paintings and calligraphy works.

A late-night visit in 1936 to the Shanhaiguan Pass in Hebei province marked a significant point in Ching's journey of art collection.

He planned to see the signboard that reads "the First Pass Under Heaven", believed to have been written by calligrapher Yan Song (1480-1567), at the historical site.

However, he was devastated to discover the board had been taken to Japan by invaders during wartime.

"Even a heavy stone inscription was looted. One can only imagine how many other cultural relics and national treasures were stolen," lamented this lover of Chinese paintings and calligraphy.

Ching was born in East China's Fujian province and followed his father to Manila, where he established his business as a rice producer. Through hard work, grit and perseverance, he soon built a business empire.

Combining the instincts of a connoisseur with the devotion of a pilgrim, he traveled extensively in Japan to look for works by renowned Chinese artists.

Chang Chi-yun (1901-85), a renowned Chinese historian and geologist, recalled Ching once told him about the visit to the Shanhaiguan Pass and how he began building his vast collection of precious Chinese ink paintings by "conducting extensive searches and sparing no expense to buy artifacts".

In the 1950s, Ching visited the Chinese mainland to find a permanent home for his collection. However, it was only in 2000 that Ching's son Alfredo Ching and daughter Rita Ching Tan were able to honor his wishes by selecting 233 masterpieces from his Liangtuxuan collection and donating them to the Shanghai Museum.

In recognition of the family's commitment to preserving Chinese culture and their remarkable contributions, Shanghai Museum has established a dedicated gallery named after Liangtuxuan, Ching Banlee's studio name which means "the studio of two bewilderments", to exhibit curated groups of the donated works, on rotation.

With the opening of the Shanghai Museum East, the gallery at the main venue on People's Square has undergone renovation and expansion. The museum is now presenting the Liangtuxuan collection in a more thorough and organized way.

Pearls Returned Home: Painting and Calligraphy from the Collection of Liangtuxuan by the Ching Banlee Family is running on the third floor of the museum until April 19, 2026.

"My father used to say that no matter how high the price was, he would buy the Chinese artworks he saw in Japan and one day take them back to China," recalls Rita Ching Tan, who attended the opening of the exhibition on Aug 20 in a wheelchair.

Before he died in 1965 at the age of 66, "my father looked at me with tears in his eyes. He could not speak, but I knew it was his artworks that he was worried about", she recalls.

Ching Banlee's collection includes diverse genres and subjects, and spans more than 800 years — from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), through the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, to the modern period. These works cover a wide range of artists and schools in the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy.

The collection is especially notable for its extremely rare Song Dynasty landscape paintings, Ming and Qing figure paintings, and late Ming calligraphy, showcasing Ching Banlee's exceptional connoisseurship and distinct taste for art, according to Ling Lizhong, director of the Chinese painting and calligraphy department at the Shanghai Museum.

The collection has filled gaps in the archives of the museum, and "made our historical calligraphy and paintings more complete", Ling says.

The earliest painting in the collection, a handscroll by an unknown artist of the Song Dynasty, depicts a solitary temple on a mountain in autumn. The painting was created by a contemporary of Fan Kuan (about 950-1032), one of the most important artists of the Song Dynasty.

"We had very few artworks like this in our collection," Ling says.

"This is an important piece that illustrates the transition in the artistic styles from the Northern Song (960-1127) to the Southern Song (1127-1279) period."

Forty-one artworks are on display for the first six months of the exhibition. "We will rotate the exhibits several times, and make sure most of the 233 artworks are seen by the public," Ling says.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

9 am-5 pm (last entry at 4 pm), closed on Mondays (except on national holidays), until April 19, 2026.

Reservation is required.

Shanghai Museum, 201 Renmin Avenue, Huangpu district, Shanghai.