In the early twentieth century, as participants in Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolution to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, the three founders of the Lingnan School of Chinese painting--Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng and Chen Shuren--advocated the development of a "New National Painting" (Xin Guo Hua). This movement held that artists should derive inspiration directly from life and nature, experiment with and develop their own individual style, and propagate art education. These Guangdong-based (hence, the name “Lingnan”) artists learned traditional Chinese painting under the tutelage of noted late Qing artists Ju Lian and his mentor-cousin Ju Zhao.

When the Meiji reforms transformed Japan into a modern, industrialized nation, many Chinese youth and intellectuals, dissatisfied with the ineffectual Qing Government, went to study abroad, especially in Japan, since it was nearer and culturally speaking closer to China. Gao Jianfu studied in Tokyo in 1907, Gao Qifeng studied with Japanese artist Tanaka Raisho, and Chen Shuren entered Kyoto Art Academy in 1906 and in 1913 obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rikkyo University in Tokyo. The three founders’ early works were greatly influenced by Japanese painters such as Takeuchi Seiho, Yokohama Taikan, Hashimoto Gaho and others.

The aim of the Lingnan School is not to uproot itself from Chinese tradition but to infuse new life and energy into an ancient art form that had become overburdened with mannerism and the copying of old masters, and to appropriate western and Japanese concepts through the expansion of subject matter and techniques for personal experimentation and expression.

Today, the Lingnan School has a global reach. It not only flourishes in Guangdong, Guangxi, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macao, but also in Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia. It also has adherents in Australia, U.S.A., and Canada, as well as European countries such as Great Britain, Germany, and France.

Second-generation Lingnan artists like Zhao Shao Ang, Yang Sanseng, Li Xiongcai, Guan Sanyue are acknowledged contemporary masters. Among the outstanding students of Zhao Shao Ang are Hau Chiok and his wife Sy Chiu Hua, who lived in the Philippines for many years and now reside in Canada. The couple’s artistic career spans a period of more than forty years. They have taught thousands of students from sixty countries. Hau Chiok’s Techniques of Flower Painting will soon be put out by the Beijing Arts and Crafts Publishing. A compilation of his art works will be published by Tianjin's People's Art Publishing, China. Of his paintings, a Chinese art critic wrote: “Mr. Hau’s paintings have incorporated many techniques and influences of western art, such as oil, sketching, water color, and print making into Philippine themes and sceneries. This ‘Nanyang’ style that evokes Southeast Asian and especially Philippine subjects and experiences is a unique style of his and a great contribution to the improvement of contemporary Chinese painting[. N]ot only has he carried on the spirit and advocacy of the past Lingnan masters, but he has set forth a good example for the second generation of overseas Lingnan artists to follow.” 

Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia Issue 10 (August 2008)