Guest Introduction | Luo Yanzi
Luo Yanzi is a Chinese painter with a strong foundation in traditional ink art and a distinctive personal style shaped by both family heritage and long-term artistic practice. Raised in a deeply cultivated artistic environment, she was profoundly influenced from an early age by her father, Luo Guowei, a renowned landscape painter born in 1942 in Hefei, Anhui. Luo Guowei studied under the celebrated masters Xu Gongze and Qian Songyan, and devoted his career to the creation and teaching of Chinese landscape painting. He served as a professor and as Vice President of the China Calligraphy and Painting Research Association, and is known for integrating classical brush-and-ink traditions with philosophical depth and a modern aesthetic sensibility.
Growing up in this atmosphere, Luo Yanzi was immersed in Chinese art and culture from childhood and studied painting under her father’s guidance. Rooted in tradition while pursuing her own artistic language, she has developed a style noted for its confident brushwork and bold use of ink. Her paintings reflect both the influence of her family lineage and her engagement with the artistic legacies of Shi Tao, Gong Xian, and Qian Songyan.
Luo Yanzi is a member of the Nanjing Artists Association and the Jiangsu Artists Association. Her works have been featured in important exhibitions and have received recognition, including an Excellence Award for Meiyuan Xincun and selection for exhibitions such as Gucheng Xinzi. Her representative work, Niushou Xinlu, demonstrates her sensitivity to landscape, cultural memory, and the expressive possibilities of contemporary Chinese painting.
As an artist shaped by both inheritance and innovation, Luo Yanzi continues to carry forward the spirit of traditional Chinese painting while exploring its relevance and vitality in the present day.
Interview Plan
August 27, 2026
I have known Professor Luo for several years, and for a brief period I also studied Chinese painting with her. Although my own preference tends toward a more classical style, quite different from Professor Luo’s approach to painting, this has never prevented us from having long and engaging conversations about Chinese painting. Perhaps because she grew up under the influence of her father, a master of traditional Chinese painting, and because she herself has long been devoted to the creation and teaching of Chinese painting, Professor Luo has developed many distinctive insights into the art form.
It was for this reason that I began to think about inviting her to offer a more systematic account of Chinese painting. Yet when the interview theme—A Millennium in Brushstrokes: Understanding Chinese Painting from the Song Dynasty to the Modern Era—was set, I suddenly felt quite apprehensive. The history of Chinese art is vast and far-reaching, with countless schools, styles, and techniques; to hope that a single interview could fully sort through all of it would be little short of impossible.
So Professor Luo and I agreed on a different approach: rather than attempting to cover everything, we would select one representative painter from each dynasty, beginning with the individual artist and then expanding outward to the artistic styles of the period and even to its broader social and cultural context. If this conversation can serve as a modest point of entry—offering audiences even the briefest outline of the history of Chinese painting and of literati painting in particular—that would already be very meaningful.
After discussing the idea with Professor Luo, I drafted an interview plan. Even so, I felt that it might ultimately be better to leave more room for her own instincts and reflections. So I told her that the plan was intended only as a point of departure and that I hoped even more that she would speak freely about what she most wished to say. If this project interests you, you are welcome to download the interview plan below for a general sense of its direction.
Selected Representative Works by the Featured Artists
Fan Kuan (c. 950 – c. 1032), Travelers Among Mountains and Streams
Ni Zan (1301–1274), Rongxi Studio
Ni Zan (1301–1274), Six Gentlemen
Shen Zhou (1427–1509): Lofty Mount Lu
Shitao (1642–1707), Searching All the Strange Peaks for Drafts
Shitao (1642–1707), Album of Landscapes
Bada Shanren (1626–1705), Landscape Album
Qi Baishi (1864–1957), Shrimp
Visiting Professor Luo’s Studio
August 27, 2026
Professor Luo’s studio is located on the banks of the Yanzhi River in Qinhuai District, Nanjing. The Yanzhi River is a tributary of the famed Qinhuai River, and the well-known Confucius Temple area is also just a short distance away. The studio is housed in a commercial villa within Nanjing Courtyard, a residential compound distinguished by the charm of a traditional Chinese classical garden. Together with her husband, Professor Luo redesigned and renovated the interior of the building, transforming it into an elegant, natural, and distinctly Chinese-inspired artistic space. Spread across three levels with a split-level layout, it brings together areas for calligraphy and painting, exhibitions, reading, tea appreciation, and gatherings with friends.
Before the interview began, I invited Professor Luo to take us on a brief tour of the calligraphy and painting collection displayed on the first floor of her studio. The collection includes works passed down through her family, ink masterpieces by her father, the renowned traditional Chinese painter Luo Guowei; Professor Luo’s own paintings; as well as oil paintings by her daughter. Together, these works offered us a vivid glimpse into the artistic legacy of a family in which creativity has been passed down from generation to generation.
Interview Video Part One: Starting with Fan Kuan, A Conversation on Song Dynasty Landscape Painting
August 27, 2026
Interview Video Part Two: Yuan and Ming Dynasty Chinese Landscape Painting
August 27, 2026
Interview Video Part Three: Qing Dynasty Chinese Painting
August 27, 2026
Interview Video Part Four: A Brief Look at Modern Chinese Painting and Its Comparison with Contemporary Western Art
August 27, 2026
Reflections on the Interview
September 10, 2026
Today is September 10, 2026. With the start of the new school term keeping me especially busy, I only just managed to finish editing my interview video with Professor Luo today. In fact, on the day of the interview, she also told me about her trip to Dunhuang in August, where she visited, sketched from life, and studied mural pigments and color techniques together with scholars from the Dunhuang Academy. There were quite a few stories from that experience—some fascinating, others deeply moving. I’ve kept those recordings as a treasure, but I think I’ll wait until next year, when I hopefully have the chance to go to Dunhuang with the Art & Beyond team and study there myself, before organizing and sharing them properly with everyone.
While editing the video, I found myself revisiting the interview again and again, which led to new reflections and insights. Although our topic was quite challenging, I feel we achieved what we set out to do by focusing on the big picture: tracing the main trajectory of Chinese painting, discussing how its defining characteristics evolved over time, and weaving in the lives, anecdotes, and lesser-known stories of representative artists. Throughout the editing process, I hardly cut anything from the interview, because every part of it felt compelling and there was very little that seemed redundant.
In fact, when the interview ended that day, Professor Luo told me that talking with me about the history of Chinese art had also helped her reexamine for herself the evolution of Chinese painting from the Song dynasty to the modern era, as well as the broader historical forces that may have shaped those changes. She felt she had gained a great deal from the conversation too. As for me, the process has also given me new ideas. I’ve already transcribed the entire interview and organized it into five parts on the blog. You can click the text below to open them directly. Perhaps, who knows, I may one day compile it together with more interview material into a book.