Tan Swie Hian

Tan Swie Hian is a multidisciplinary artist renowned for his contemporary Chinese calligraphy, poetry, and sculptures.

Biography of Tan Swie Hian

Tan Swie Hian was born in 1943 in Indonesia but relocated to Singapore around 1946. He grew up fluent in Chinese and Malay and later studied English and French at Nanyang University. After earning a degree in English literature from the university, he began his career as a press attaché at the French Embassy in Singapore. Throughout his time as an attaché, he continued to pursue his passion for art.

Hian's initial entry into the Singapore arts scene came with his poetry collection, The Giant, published in 1968. This work marked a significant milestone in the Chinese modernist literary movement in Singapore and Malaysia. To date, he has authored 39 publications encompassing poetry, essays, stories, criticisms, and translations. His multilingual prowess enabled him to translate the works of renowned literary figures such as Aldous Huxley, Henri Michaux, Jacques Prévert, Samuel Beckett, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Marin Sorescu into Chinese.

He held his first art exhibition at the National Library on Stamford Road in 1973. That same year, he converted to Buddhism, and his profound spiritual experience led him to set aside painting for the next four years.

Tan Swie Hian resumed painting only after Michel Deverge, the French Embassy's cultural attaché at the time, threatened to end their friendship if he did not return to his art. Deverge subsequently organized a successful exhibition of Tan’s new works at the Paul Gauguin Museum in Tahiti. After spending 24 years with the embassy, Tan left his position to focus on art full-time.

In 1987, he received the Singapore Cultural Medallion. His accolades include a Gold Medal at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris (1995), the Seoul International Calligraphy Gold Medal (2002), and the prestigious Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum (2003). In the same year, Tan Swie Hian was conferred the Meritorious Service Medal by the President of Singapore, the highest honor for a cultural personality in the Republic.