Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month 1997

Chinese American Designers Association
May 1997, Union Square Park, New York City
Photo by Corky Lee
 






















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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Solidarity

May 1927
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Sui Wesley Chan, Artist and Member of the Chinese Art Club

Sui Wesley Chan, also known as Wesley S. Chan, was born on September 15, 1897 in Canton, China according to his World War II draft card. His naturalization application had the birth year 1898 and his immigration name, Soy Jung Chan. A 1937 passenger list said his birthplace was Toishan, China.

Chan immigrated to Canada in 1915 based on the date recorded in the 1930 United States census. He resided in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In August 1921 Chan crossed the border for the purpose of studying at the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The register included his birthplace, Tong Lee, Sun Ning (an earlier version of Toishan), China and mother’s name and location.


The Chicago Daily News, November 27, 1929, said

Artist Society Shows Cream of Local Work
Almost but not quite snowed under by football celebrations and such distractions of metropolitan hotel life the Chicago Society of Artists is carrying on in a third floor corridor of the Stevens hotel. ...

...the Chicago society’s exhibition contains with few exceptions the cream in painting of the independent wing of our artists.

There is ... Sui Wesley Chan, the young Chinese who is the latest product of the Art institute’s graduate school, ...
The Hyde Park Herald (Chicago, Illinois), December 6, 1929, said
Sui Wesley Chan, whose studios are in the Arcade building, 36th and Ellis, is one of Hyde Park’s artists to have a picture hung in the exhibition of the Chicago Society of Artists at the Stevens hotel.
The Hyde Park Herald, December 13, 1929, said
North Hyde Park is peculiarly favored in it many distinguished artists. ... Sui Wesley Chan, well-known Chinese artist, lives in the Douglas Arcade at 36th ands Cottage Grove. These are representative of the large number of well known painters who have found North Hyde Park a pleasant place in which to live and dream and work.
The Chicago Daily Tribune, August 3, 1930, reported events at the Art Institute.
An exhibition of paintings and lithographs by Sui Wesley Chan, a native Chinese who graduated from the Chicago Art institute and who is a member of the Chicago Society of Artists, is on view in the Kroch gallery.
The 1930 census counted Chan (line 14), his wife, Florence, and daughter, Susian. The date and place of Chan’s marriage is not known. The family lived in Chicago at 3560 Ellis Avenue. Chan was a self-employed artist.


Publishers Weekly, August 30, 1930, said
The galleries of A. Kroch’s International Book Store at 206 North Michigan Ave., have been showing an exhibit of the art of Sui Wesley Chan, including water colors, oils and lithographs.
The Chicago Daily News, September 10, 1930, said
“Over the Lagoon, Lincoln Park”—A Lithograph by Sui Wesley Chan, Young Chinese Student Now Working in Chicago.

Sui Wesley Chan, the young Chinese artist who graduated at the institute school recently, had his first one-man show at Kroch’s this summer. There is a nice paint quality in the work of this painter, if he has so far stuck rather closely to the styles of his different teachers. Already he has tried his hand at a wide variety of subjects—[portraits, the figure, landscape, and city life. He handles both water color and lithography with a true feeling for these media. His lithograph of the lagoon in Lincoln park, on this page, is one the new items for Chicago fans which will be kept in the portfolios at Kroch’s.
The Chicago Daily News, November 11, 1930, said
The Chicago Art Guild, Sister Stanisia’s idealistic plan to bring the work of Chicago artists before the residents of Longwood, opened its second exhibition last Sunday at the Academy of Our Lady, Throop and 95th streets. ...

The collection now hanging at the academy, which is to remain for the winter, is a cosmopolitan and up-to-date one, including the work of such as Helen West Heller, Sui Wesley Chan, Frances Foy, Edouard Chassaing, Macena Barton, Camille Andrene, Emil Armin, Eugenie Glaman, Ralph Clarkson, Thomas Hall, Carl Hallsthammar, Irving Manoir, Tunis Ponsen, Eva Watson Schutze, Karl Wagner and Louis Weiner.
The Art News, December 13, 1930, reported the international exhibition of lithographs and woodcuts at the Art Institute of Chicago and said
... Several Chicago artists are represented: Theodore J. Roszak, J. Brozik, William S. Schwartz, Davenport Griffen, I. Iver Rose, Sui Wesley Chan, and Helen West Heller. ...
The Chicago Daily News, December 17, 1930, said
...at the [Art] institute’s international print exhibition there are works by about a dozen Chicago woodcut artists and lithographers who made the show, among them Sui Wesley Chan, Jean Crawford Adams, Charles Wilimovsky, Frederick Larson, Catherine O’Brien, Towell Scott, Davenport Griffen and Theodore Roszak.
Chan’s art was exhibited at the Art Institute from 1929 to 1931.

The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 20, 1931, published an article about chop suey and its origin.
When next you eat chop suey, remember you are eating an American dish, whether it is prepared by American or Chinese chefs, and that the food you are eating, according to the Chinese interpretation of the words chop suey is “many things in small pieces.”

Four Chicago Chinese leaned back from a dinner table one evening this week and by combining answers in English with considerable discussion among themselves in Chinese, answered some of the questions that interest the average American.

Wesley Chan, an artist, first settled the meaning of the words chop suey by explaining that chop means “many things” and that suey means “in small pieces.” It is not a Chinese dish but an American dish composed of typical Chinese foods. ...
The Chicago Daily News, April 22, 1931, said
Features Gone But City Offers Plenty of Art
Town Full of Exhibits That Fail to Replace Exciting Shows

With such exciting art shows as the Carnegie International and the Guelph treasure no over, the gallery fan looks in vain this week for anything to take their place. And the town is full of exhibitions, too. ... The Midland Club has a dignified, if not very thrilling display by the Chicago Society of Artists. Perhaps Sui Wesley Chan’s picture of the red Wabash avenue bridge, Macena Barton’s modern Simonetta leaning on her red polka-dotted window sill and Charles Mullin’s new delight of suburban life may be the exceptions, ...
The Chicago Daily News, October 8, 1931, said
Mrs. Kelly Heads Art Exhibit to Open Sunday
Mrs. Haven Core Kelly, of 7701 Yates avenue, is chairman for the third annual exhibit sponsored by the Fine Arts Guild of Chicago, to open Sunday at the Longwood Academy galleries, 95th and Throop streets. Among exhibitors will be Sister M. Stanisia, Sui Wesley Chan, Tunis Ponsen, Anna Lynch, Wellington Reynolds, Maud I. G. Oliver, Leon Hermann, Thomas O’Shaughnessy, Harold Leroy, Martin Hennings, Gerald Frank, Oscar Gross, Marshall Smith, Joseph Berrien, G. Armando Michell, Livia Macrini and Ralph Clarkson.
By 1933 Chan moved to New York City.

In 1933 Chan illustrated Isaac Taylor Headland’s book, Chinese Rhymes for Children: With a Few from India, Japan and Korea. The book was mentioned in Reformed Church Messenger, Women and Missions, and The Chinese Recorder.


A review appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), November 11, 1933, which said
... Sui Wesley Chan did the illustration, and Sui Wesley is particularly terrible. It is too bad she [sic] forgot her own charming Chinese background and went frankly—and stuffily—Occidental in her pen-and-inks. ...
The New York Evening Journal, November 22, 1933, said
Morris Eisenman to Get Portrait
Morris Eisenman, president of the Metropolitan News Co., tonight will receive a portrait of himself, executed by Sui Wesley Chen [sic], at a gathering of artists and writers at 122 W. 13th st. The artists commissioned Chen to do the portrait in recognition of Eisenman’s philanthropy in art.
The Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1934, printed Chan’s artwork.


Chan, his daughter and four-year-old New York-born son, Du Can, traveled to China. They stayed at Park Sha, Toyshan, China where Chan’s father-in-law, Mah Wing Sang, lived. On November 26, 1937 the family was aboard the ship Empress of Japan when it departed Hong Kong. The trio arrived at Vancouver, Canada on December 15. They transferred to the ship Princess Kathleen which took them to Seattle, Washington. On the passenger Chan named his friend, Mrs. W.C. Moy, who lived in Brooklyn at 1707 East 52nd Street. Chan’s Chinese Exclusion Act case file number was 27730/3-1 and ticket number 7032/3070.


The New York Times, December 8, 1938, said
The Chinese Art Club Elects
The Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street, announced yesterday that it has elected its founder, Chu Jor, as the new president for the coming year. K. L. Eng was elected vice president and Wesley S. Chan treasurer. It also announced that its annual Chinese children’s show, which will be held in February, will not be confined to New York City, but will be national in scope.
Chinese Digest, January 1939, said
New Officers for N.Y. Chinese Art Club
New York—The Chinese Art Club here at its fourth annual meeting elected Chu Jor for its next president, succeeding Moowee Tiam. Others elected included K.L. Eng, Wesley S. Chan, Marquis Chunn, Arthur Lee, and Stanley H. Chin.

The club is now preparing for its next annual Children’s Art exhibition. This year it intends to have a nation-wide representation and Chinese children’s art work from the Chinese communities of San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and other Chinatowns.
The Nassau Daily Review-Star (Freeport, New York), October 11, 1939, said
Dinner Marks Birth of Chinese Republic
Hong Host to Freeport Group at Affair in Commemoration of Its Founding

The village of Freeport today has an oil painting showing a section of Sunrise highway in the western part of the village. The painting was presented to the village by Edward L. Hong at a dinner commemorating the 28th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese republic held in Savoy inn, Merrick road, last night.

Mr. Hong, who operates the restaurant, was host to a group of village officials and leading business and professional men at the dinner. Mayor Robert E. Patterson accepted the painting on behalf of the village.

The painting is by Wesley Chan of Freeport, and shows a portion of Sunrise highway near the municipal lighting plant. It is titled, “The Heart of the Sunrise Trail.”

Clinton J. Egan acted as toast-master at the dinner, which also marked the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Savoy inn at Freeport.
The Nassau Daily Review-Star, December 5, 1939, covered the Nassau County Art League’s annual exhibition. Chan was an exhibitor.

Chan’s one-man show was covered in the Nassau Daily Review-Star, January 15, 1940.


Chop suey isn’t the only attraction at Eddie Hong’s Savoy Inn on West Merrick road, Freeport, these days. Eddie is sponsoring an exhibit of 14 paintings by his fellow countryman and friend, Sui Wesley Chan, in the dragon room of the inn. The exhibit will continue through the remainder of the month. Above, left to right, Dr. Nathaniel Cooper, Mrs. J. B. Barnes, Eddie and Chan look at the largest painting on display, a formal portrait of Chester A. Fulton, Freeport business man and civic leader.

Chinese Artist Shows Work in Solo Show at Freeport

Sui Wesley Chan Exhibits 14 Canvases in Dragon Room of Savoy Inn

“Rosh job, rosh job,” said little Sui Wesley Chan, deprecatingly. But for all his real and unaffected modesty, honest pride showed through the oriental, poker-face composure of the Chinese artist as people streamed in to view the exhibition of his latest paintings in the dragon room of the Savoy inn on West Merrick road, Freeport, operated by his fellow countryman, friend and patron, Edward L. Hong.

Studio in China Destroyed

The phrase, “latest paintings,” was used advisedly above, for Wesley is mourning the loss of most of his works, among them several pieces that he considered his best. They were destroyed when the Japanese invaders blew up his studio in Canton, China. Wesley just managed to escape ahead of them.

The exhibit consists of 11 oils and three water colors, most of them local subjects, including formal portraits of Chester A. and Mrs. Fulton and Mrs. S. G. Myers, widely known Freeport residents, as well as a still life and a study of Chinatown in lower Manhattan.

Wesley painted them all since coming to Freeport to live with the Hong family at 164 Southside avenue during the past year. Like most artists, he would have liked to have devoted more time to their execution, but the promptings of his energetic friend, Eddie Hong, kept him at his easel many times during the summer when he would much rather have been playing tennis on the Schuman courts in Baldwin. He’s as handy with a racket as with a brush, incidentally.

Subjects to Get Portraits

After the exhibit, Wesley and Eddie Hong will present the portraits to their subjects, a study of its clubhouse to the South Shore Yacht club and a study of the municipal electric power house called “The Heart of the Sunrise Trail,” to the Village of Freeport. The other works will be for sale to art lovers.

A native of Canton, China and the only artist in his family, Wesley is a graduate of the Art institute of Chicago, where he won a scholarship for excellence in painting. He is a member of the Chicago society of artists and the Art league of Nassau county. His works have been exhibited in the American institute of paintings and sculpture and at the art institute of Chicago, at Cedar Rapids, Ia.; Beloit college, Beloit, Wis.; the Art association at Ann Arbor, Mich.; Garden City and at New York city.

When he returned to his native land several years ago, the Canton government school of art appointed him head of the western art department with headquarters in that city. But the Japs blasted his pictures, his plans and his hopes and he is now in Freeport, supporting himself by commercial art work and creating his more serious compositions in his spare time.

A quiet, studious little man in his forties, Wesley is the perfect foil for his dynamic, thoroughly Americanized friend and patron, Eddie Hong. The exhibit is Eddie’s idea and he is carrying it through with the thoroughness that characterizes his many civic activities.
The Savoy Inn was featured in Chan’s 1939 painting.

In the 1940 census Chan (line 53) and his family lived in Manhattan at 22 Spring Street. He was a freelance artist who earned 600 dollars in 1939.


On February 15, 1942 Chan signed his World War II draft card. His home address was the same. He was described as five feet four inches, 143 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.


An image of Chan’s 1943 painting is at Bonhams.

In 1948 Chan and his wife became naturalized citizens; Florence on January 5 and Chan on November 15. He changed his name from Chan Soy Jung to Sui Wesley Chan.


The 1950 census said Chan (line 20), his wife and daughter lived at 22 Spring Street in Manhattan. The whereabouts of his son is not known. 


Chan passed away on December 24, 1961 in Manhattan, New York City. His wife, Florence, passed away on December 21, 1993 in Exton, Pennsylvania. Chan’s daughter, Susian, passed away on September 18, 1999. His son, Du Can, passed away on March 2, 2016.


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Artist Chu H. Jor and the Chinese Art Club
 
 
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Wednesday, May 7, 2025

A Few Details About K. L. Eng, Artist and Member of the Chinese Art Club

Kailuen Eng, also known as K. L. Eng, was born around 1905 in Canton, China according to the Canadian Immigration Service. The date of his immigration to the United States is not known. Eng crossed the border at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada in September 1927. He was on line fourteen of the report which had his birth information and mother’s name and location. The last column said Eng was rejected for entry into Canada.


According to the Canadian report Eng had traveled from Ohio. He was not listed in the 1926 Cleveland, Ohio city directory. In 1927 Eng’s address was 1450 East 12th Street. He was an artist at the Landon School which offered art classes and correspondence lessons. The 1929 Cleveland directory listed Eng at 1446 East 82nd Street. He was clerk at the Landon School.

The Chinese Students’ Monthly, January 1929, published the article “China at the All Nations Exposition in Cleveland”. Eng was in charge of the booths and decorations. Following the article was a brief profile of Eng which said

Kailuen Eng is a rabid reel fan. He feeds on cartoons. He can cook delicious Chinese soup. He is afraid of press photographers. He is responsible for the Chinese sets at the All Nations Exposition in Cleveland. He uses no pens—only brushes. He sings tenor at Sunday school. He hates reporters.

Eng was not listed in the 1930 Cleveland directory. He has not been found in the 1930 United States census. At some point Eng moved to the New York metropolitan area.

The New York American, April 7, 1935, reported the 19th annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists and said
... The John Reed Club, Julius Manya, Sarah Berman, Raphael Doktor, K. L. Eng, Benjamin Ovryn and others represent the political Left. Hitler, Mussolini, President Roosevelt, J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Japan, Fascism, etc., are portrayed with disfavor in their paintings. ...
Eng was mentioned in the New York Sun, October 12, 1936.
Will Open Gallery
Chinese Art Club to Show Paintings and Sculpture.

The Chinese Art Club will open a new gallery at 175 Canal street, in Chinatown, Wednesday evening at 8 o’clock, with an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by twenty Chinese and American artists, Chu H. Jor, president of the club, announced today.

The club was founded last year and held exhibitions last winter at 10 Pell street, but this is the first time, Mr. Jor said, that the club has had an adequate gallery to display the work of members.

Among the exhibitors are Oronzio Madarelli, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Tschia Lenzene, Harry Wong, Howard Low and K. L. Eng.

Mr. Jor said that there would be exhibitions from time to time during the winter, together with Oriental music and dance concerts, and reading of Oriental literature.

“Our purpose is to introduce Chinese art to the American public and Occidental art to the Chinese public,” Mr. Jor said. “That is why we have American artists among our members and sponsors. Many of our Chinese painters, too, have lived in America all of their lives, and their work is modern and individual, and not Oriental.”

Eng was mentioned in  the New York Post, October 24, 1936.

Chinese Art Club Holds Canal Street Exhibit

Those who cherish the racial interpretation of art will find some matter to ponder in the exhibit by members of the Chinese Art Club in their new quarters at 175 Canal Street. For nine-tenths of the work shown is indistinguishable from contemporary occidental art.

Howard Low is most alert to advanced modern trends, creating abstract designs, lively drawings of city life, and intimate paintings like “Goldfish Bowl,” all very well done. Chu W. Young is an able exponent of impressionist landscape art, and Chu H. Jor paints still life with a soft patine of color. Others showing are Mowee Tiam, Harry Wong, Stanley Chin, Tschai Lanzene, K. L. Eng, Bennie Sonn and S. V. Pang.
The China Weekly Review, December 11, 1937, reprinted Eng’s cartoon from the Christian Student.


Chinese Digest, March 1938, said
Art Club to Hold Painting and Photography Exhibits
New York—The Chinese Art club here will hold its third annual exhibit of paintings and sculpture at the club’s gallery, 175 Canal street, beginning March 1 and extending through March 25.

The exhibit will include works by Miss Yee Ching-chih, Jack Chen, Chu H. Jor, Kailuen Eng, Moowee Tiam, Tschai Lenzene, Howard Low, and others. Guest exhibitors will include Neysa McNein [sic], Oronzio Maladrelli, Guy Maccoy, Dimitri Romanovesky, and others.

Beginning April 1 and extending through April 15 the Chinese Art club will hold its second photographic salon. Prints for showing may be submitted by any Chinese in any part of the country, and may be of any size, but must be mounted. Submission of prints must be made on or before March 25, announced W. Yukon, in charge of this exhibit. All pictures submitted will be returned in their original wrappings to the senders after the close of the exhibition.
The New York Times, March 3, 1938, said
Chinese Art Club Displays Paintings
Exhibit Dedicated to ‘Struggle Against Aggression’—Few War Pictures
The Chinese Art Club’s third annual exhibition was opened to the public yesterday at its galleries, 175 Canal Street. A sign at the entrance announced that the show was dedicated to “the Chinese struggle against Japanese aggression.”

There was little sign of that struggle, however, in the exhibition itself. War scenes were outnumbered by still-lifes by more than two to one. Only five of the fifty-two pictures dealt with the war, and one of these was contributed by Neysa McMein, one of the eight non-Chinese artists exhibiting.

The most ambitious of the war scenes was K.L. Eng’s painting of a refugee family. It showed a husband and wife fleeing with four children. The other war scenes were all small. They included a drawing of a woman volunteer, by Jack Chen; a wood engraving of a Chinese soldier encouraging men behind him, by Li Chun, and a water-color of a refugee, by Moowee Tiam, the club’s president.

The rest of the show was made up of pictures of fruits and flowers, pastoral landscapes and peaceful studies of people. And there was little evidence that all but ten of the works were by Chinese artists. Miss Yee Ching-chih’s three pictures and Harry Wong’s landscape were the only ones in the tradition of Chinese painting.

The exhibition will be open until March 25.
The New York Post, March 19, 1938, said
Chinese Club Show
The third annual exhibition by members and friends of the Chinese Art Club is now current at 175 Canal Street.

Some participants, such as K. L. Eng, Jack Chen and Mowee Tiam, have turned in work bearing on the dedication of the show to the defense of the Chinese people. Others have followed their older tendencies, Chu H. Jor showing richly painted still lifes of livid lobsters and fruit. Chu W. Young an impressionist landscape, Tschai Lenzene genre landscapes and Yee Ching-Chih landscapes in the Chinese brush technique.

Work by American artists includes Oronzio Maldarelli’s handsome dancer, Guy Maccoy’s “The Old Tree,” two compositions by Genoi Pettit, a still life by Arthur Schwieder and a drawing by Neysa McMein.
Chinese Digest, May 1938, printed Eng’s “Refugee” painting.


The New York Times, December 8, 1938, said
The Chinese Art Club Elects
The Chinese Art Club, 175 Canal Street, announced yesterday that it has elected its founder, Chu Jor, as the new president for the coming year. K. L. Eng was elected vice president and Wesley S. Chan treasurer. It also announced that its annual Chinese children’s show, which will be held in February, will not be confined to New York City, but will be national in scope.
Chinese Digest, January 1939, said
New Officers for N.Y. Chinese Art Club
New York—The Chinese Art Club here at its fourth annual meeting elected Chu Jor for its next president, succeeding Moowee Tiam. Others elected included K.L. Eng, Wesley S. Chan, Marquis Chunn, Arthur Lee, and Stanley H. Chin.

The club is now preparing for its next annual Children’s Art exhibition. This year it intends to have a nation-wide representation and Chinese children’s art work from the Chinese communities of San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and other Chinatowns.
The Intercollegian, January 1942, printed one of Eng’s paintings.


What became of Eng is not known.

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Artist Chu H. Jor and the Chinese Art Club
 
 
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