Born to a literati family in Shanghai, China, Huang Yao (1914-1987) received his formative education from his father in classical literati traditions and calligraphy, particularly in the archaic scripts of oracle bone and bronze inscription. In the 1930s, he gained recognition as a talented cartoonist for creating the comic character “Niu Bi Zi” which was widely used as an educational resource in schools. Huang travelled to Southeast Asia after the end of World War II in 1945, and resided in different countries before settling permanently in Malaysia in 1956. He worked primarily as an art educator until his retirement in 1973. A prolific artist, he had held 23 solo and group exhibitions and six retrospective exhibitions.Huang often found inspiration for his “wenzi hua” (calligraphic paintings) from poems, idioms and pictorial signs from archaic scripts. In this painting depicting the idiom “chuanliu buxi”(meaning “endless flow”) the pictorial image for “chuan” (meaning “river”) is illustrated by a river with fish swimming in it. The use of extremely wet brushstrokes also alludes to the theme.
