Nien Cheng’s Art Treasures and Artist Representation

Porcelain treasures such as wine cups are nearly three hundred years old and priceless and cannot be replaced by any modern artist. These represent to her a Chinese cultural heritage that every Chinese should be proud of.

The Blanc de chine Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin, a genuine artifact of the seventeenth century by Ming sculptor, Chen Wei, which had his seal at the back. It was a creamy white porcelain figure carved out of hard biscuit with a serene face and a flowing robe. She valued this artwork such that she could not display it unless to her friends who appreciated its value and beauty. She treasured the porcelain pieces such that she was ready to give them away to the Red guards to sell rather than see them destroyed. She risked being beaten in order to save them.

She also treasured her books which she ordered secretly from a bookstore in London using her employer’s address such as ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’. When she saw them burning in bonfire lit by the red guards her heart tightened in pain.

Nien Cheng also had a collection of records of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century European classical music done by Masters such as Mozart, Chopin, and Beethoven. When the red guards wanted to break the records she begged them to save and donate to the Music Society which she was informed was disbanded. She loves music as it represented freedom to her being experienced in other countries but not enjoyed in China.