Date：2025-08-20 - 2026-04-19
Location：Shanghai Museum on People's Square, Exhibition Room for Paintings and Calligraphy Works from Liangtuxuan (3F)
Organizers：Shanghai Museum
Among the painting and calligraphy collection of the Shanghai Museum, particularly precious are the works from Liangtuxuan ("Studio of Double Bewilderment"), the studio of Mr. Ching Banlee (1899-1965), a Filipino entrepreneur of Chinese descent and a great admirer of Chinese culture. The fact that countless cultural relics of China were scattered overseas stirred up deep emotions within Mr. Ching, who devoted his entire life to acquiring hundreds of precious paintings and calligraphy works and kept them in his studio. With a noble character and a huge passion for his ancestral homeland, he never considered these treasures to be his private possessions. After his passing, his son Mr. Alfredo Ching and daughter Ms. Rita Ching Tan, with the full support of their family, honored their father's wishes by selecting 233 masterpieces from the Liangtuxuan collection and generously gave them as a gift to the Shanghai Museum in 2000.
The painting and calligraphy collection from Liangtuxuan boasts diverse genres and subjects, comprising works spanning over 800 years – from the Song dynasty, through the Ming and Qing, and to the modern period – and covering a wide range of artists and schools in the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy. The collection in especially notable for its extremely rare Song dynasty landscape, Ming and Qing figure paintings, and late Ming calligraphy, showcasing Mr. Ching's exceptional connoisseurship and distinct taste for art.
In recognition of the Ching family's commitment to preserving Chinese culture and their remarkable contributions, the Shanghai Museum established a dedicated gallery named after Liangtuxuan to exhibit curated groups of the donated works on rotation, facilitating the best possible exhibition and research of the collection. With the opening of the Shanghai Museum East, the gallery at the main venue on the People's Square has undergone renovation and expansion. Following a renewed study and organization, we are now proud to present the collection in a more comprehensive and systematic manner, demonstrating the shared aspiration and honor of both the Ching family and the Shanghai Museum.
