I had long since heard of a painter. He attended upon Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife Madam Song Meiling; he met with three top-ranking Chinese Leaders in Europe; he studied painting with Madam Song Meiling under the same master; he became a citizen of West Germany， and decades later he gave up German citizenship and became a Chinese citizen again. I had long since wanted to meet with the artist. It happened that the artist and I have a mutual friend: Tan Weigui， the former director of West Tianmu Mountain Administration. So I met with Hu Tianchi at last.

Name Changed Three Times

Hu Tianchi was born as Hu Yongchang in 1931 in a village in Changhua， part of Lin’an in western suburb of Hangzhou. His mother died when he was young. His stepmother was an obsessed gambler. One day， his father found a parcel of jewelry stashed away in a wall went missing and his stepmother said her gold ring was also missing. She accused her stepson of stealing the family treasures. Angered by the groundless accusation， Hu Tianchi cried bitterly for two hours and decided to kill himself in a river. Suddenly he seemed to hear his grandmother calling him home somewhere and decided to come back home.

In August 1948， Hu Yongchang left for Hangzhou， with 230 dollars given secretly to him from his father. Hu came to Hangzhou with Zhou Changlong， whom he regarded as a big brother. The money ran out pretty soon but they found no job. One day， Hu ran into his middle school buddy Meng Peichun. After learning their situation， Meng said that there was an opportunity to enlist in the army. Zhou Changlong was recruited， but Hu was too young to be accepted. Zhou Changlong persuaded his boss to bring Hu along， saying he could work as an orderly. So Hu Yongchang came to Taiwan.

A few months later， he received a telegraph informing him of his father’s death. He rushed back and attended the funeral. He planned to go back by ship to Taiwan from Shanghai. But Shanghai at that time was already in chaos. Money couldn’t buy a ticket. Hu was hopeless and wandered around the dock everyday. One day， he saw a big truck came to the dock， carrying a truckload of suit cases and people. Seeing an officer and his wife， Hu had an idea. He approached the couple and begged the officer to take him along. The officer eyed him and agreed. So Hu got onto the ship and was asked to watch the cases on the deck. Some gendarmes patrolled the deck and thought Hu was quite suspicious and threw him out. Hu became frightened and hopeless. Suddenly he saw the officer’s wife came onto the deck. So he called out to her and asked her to get him onto the ship again. A few minutes later， a solder came to get him onto the ship.

The officer was a lieutenant general who once served as a garrison commander in Tianjin and Beijing. The officer adopted Hu Yongchang as his stepson and changed his name to Hu Chang. Hu Chang later became an attendant at Yangming Mountain to attend upon Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife Madam Song Meiling.

The attendance job was light. Chiang and his wife did some sports activities at the mountain from six to eight every morning. Hu and his colleagues just followed， carrying chairs and tea. Their work ended at eight. So Hu Chang got himself enrolled in a painting class at Taiwan Normal University and studied at his spare time. He spent three years and with full scores， he received a diploma from the university. Huang Junbi， the dean of the art department at the university， enrolled Hu Chang into his special class. Huang officially let Hu became his disciple and gave him an art name， Tianchi. Since then he has been Hu Tianchi.

Madame Song was an amateur artist. She first studied under the guidance of Zheng Manqing. Zheng offended Chiang Kai-shek by talking about politics at dinner and had to resign and fled to New York. Madam Song Meiling then chose to study under the guidance of Huang Junbi. That is how Hu Tianchi and Madam Song studied under the same master.

Life in Europe

By August， 1963， Hu Tianchi had been working as the director of Yangming Mountain Administration. He resigned from the job and went to Europe. After traveling around for a year， he settled down in Vienna and worked as an art director at a hotel operated by an overseas Chinese. Hu created paintings that combined elements of western watercolor and traditional Chinese painting. These paintings became popular. He ran into a Chinese girl and they married. But a year later he and his wife divorced. Hu left Vienna. In Lausanne， a 2-meter-tall and 10-meter-long mural he painted was a sensational success. At his solo exhibition， all the paintings of landscape and birds and flowers were bought by an oil tycoon. Hu donated all the money to an orphanage in Switzerland. The donation became hot news in the papers printed in three languages in the country. The Switzerland president granted an audience to Hu at the presidential residence. The president took Hu to visit the orphanage.

In summer of 1973， Hu Tianchi was employed to work as a guest teacher of Chinese painting at a few education institutes in Cologne. Hu operated a gallery of Chinese fine arts at Maximilian Strasse， the first of its kind in Europe.

Meeting with the boss of China Town in western Cologne was a turning point in Hu Tianchi’s life in Germany. Hu was commissioned to paint two murals at the house of the boss. The boss was overjoyed by the result. The boss paid Hu 40，000 marks， 2，000 more than the agreed payment. What is more， he offered Hu Tianchi a space of five shops in the China Town free of rents for 15 years. Hu’s business boomed. He was rich enough to buy a villa， a car， a commercial space. And he set up a restaurant and a porcelain workshop. Hu had money to help other Chinese.

A Chinese got himself burned in an accident and lost a compensation lawsuit. Hu helped him win a compensation of 150，000 marks. A painter ran into financial difficulties in Belgium and Hu helped him out three times. Hu also financed the painter’s American solo exhibition.For several years， Hu drove to see over 20 Chinese workers whose ancestral roots were in Zhejiang Province and gave them food.

In 1973， Master Zhang Daqian， a painter from Taiwan， toured Europe. Hu Tianchi worked as a guide while Zhang and his friends visited Cologne. Hu also accompanied Zhang to meet Picasso in Marseilles. Zhang Daqian left more than fifty masterpieces to Hu’s custody after an exhibition in Cologne. After Zhang passed away in 1983， Hu returned all the paintings to Zhang’s family.

Back to China

In the summer of 1976， Hu Tianchi became a Germany citizen. At the naturalization ceremony， Hu wept. When asked why， Hu replied， “I am a Chinese with my roots in China even though I am away from my homeland. From now on I am not a Chinese any more and my roots are gone. How can I not feel sad?” He did not mean to say that the citizenship was not valuable. He was grateful， but he predicted that he would go back to China one day.

He visited Hangzhou and Changhua. He met with three visiting top leaders of China in Europe. He decided to retire to China. In 1996， he sold his properties and came back to China. After buying apartment in Cuiyuan Residential Community in Hangzhou， he immediately started a process of applying for restoring his Chinese citizenship and giving up Germany citizenship forever.

His application was approved on July 26， 2001. When he received the certificate， Hu Tianchi could not help but shake and weep， saying it was the happiest day in his life. Words failed him when he wanted to express how he felt as a son taken back by his mother.

Nowadays， he enjoys his evening years in Hangzhou. He still paints and sees friends.□