Fan Chang Tien (1907-1987) was born in the Chieh Yang Country in Canton Province. He came to Singapore in the 1950s and had settled down since then. He was educated from Sin Hua Academy of Arts and the Chang Ming Academy of Arts in Shanghai. He had acquired his techniques of painting from well-known masters like Wang Yi Ting, Chu Wen Yuin and Wang Koh Yih.

He was a teacher of Chung Cheng High School and Whampoa Secondary School. Mr Fan was known to have imparted his knowledge to his students without any reservation. He instilled in them the life-long commitment to understand and execute the great traditional art of Chinese ink paintings in the xieyi style. His students were taught to observe, comprehend and contemplate the works by the old masters before venturing into the realm of originality and creativity. He often stressed that they had to grasp the essence of tradition before they could break loose from its constraints. Courage, perseverance and discernment are needed.

His works are mostly in landscapes, figures, flowers, birds, fish and inserts. However, he specialised in painting bamboo. He is capable of expressing the spirit of bamboo to the fullest extent.

Most of his paintings are in the xieyi style, which is regarded as the grand tradition of Chinese ink painting. It provides an outlet for the expression of the artist's imagination and ideas. Among the pioneer artists, Fan Chang Tien became very influential with his ink style. His ink paintings are combinations of literature, calligraphy and painting, where the meaning of the words is enhanced by the image. This is a characteristic of xieyi paintings. ¡¡

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