Bridging Cultures through Art and Four Hundred Miles of the Connecticut River

This year marks the centenary of Charles Chu, a lifelong educator, painter, calligrapher, intellectual and innovator. Chu was not just a faculty college professor, but rather a visionary and spirited artistic master, a man who made Connecticut his home, but shared his culture and inspiration through the beauty of art.

Chu was born in 1918 in a small village in Hebei, China. From the start of his primitive and simple lifestyle, he and his family had always been fascinated with nature and the importance of simplicity. To pursue a graduate degree in political science at Harvard and UC Berkeley, he emigrated to the United States in 1945 and subsequently went into the field of education with his first position at the Army Language School in Monterey, California in 1948.

In 1951, Chu had another teaching opportunity to lecture at Yale University in their Chinese department, sharing his expertise and passion with his students. In 1965, at the invitation of President Charles E. Shain, Chu was called on to create the East Asian Language Program at Connecticut College in New London. At this time, he was a pioneer in the revolutionary small-class methodology of teaching in the university setting, merging his innate knowledge of the culture and language in lecture periods, with other cultural activities like singing, dancing and art.

Chu retired from his chair and professorial position at Connecticut College in 1984, but he still maintained his status as an intellectual outside of the classroom. He became one with the new homeland he created, painting the river he knew and loved so much as a new American, the Connecticut River. Making this scenic 407-mile long body of water the focus of his many landscape paintings, scrolls and prints, Chu was known for his delicate and calligraphic brush strokes which are adored by the student population and art lovers who visit the campus. Chu takes influence from many of the Chinese painters of his generation, including Wang Chi-yuan and Zhang Shuqi of the late Qing Dynasty, connecting Chinese art to the present. His landscapes, inspired by images of nature, beauty and love of his adopted homeland take on a personal spirit and integrity as an artist.In 1990, his piece on the beauty, glory and presence of the Connecticut River was presented to Connecticut College, and shortly thereafter, becoming a part of the newly formed Chu-Griffis Collection on campus. Chu passed away in 2008, but his art, desire for education and enlightenment carries on to his successors and students forever.This past October, I had the chance to see Chu’s work at the College. For the centennial of his birth, the Chu Reading Room was christened in the Charles E. Shain Memorial Library, decorated with Chinese furniture in feng-shui, and Chu’s personal texts and paintings for future Connecticut College students to enjoy and treasure during their time on campus. I would have relished the chance to meet Professor Chu, to discuss the country, culture and people that we hold so close. I was privileged to see his work, and to share that unbreakable bond with China, its culture and connection to my homeland.