Wherefore of three Ulysses?

My namesake(s) resurfaced with the release of The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan and my arduous plough through Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald Chernow (1149 pages).  Did my parents choose from one of these two heroic figures?

Nolan, the director of Memento and Oppenheimer, has produced a visually breathtaking IMAX epic of the two decade-long journey of Odysseus, marked by the fall of Troy (Trojan Horse), to return to Penelope in Ithaca beset by numerous nefarious suitors who presumed her husband to be dead.  Challenged by the unending calamities in the man-eating Cyclops, Circe who transforms his men into pigs (very graphic), Sirens, sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, and nymph Calypso who enraptured him for 7 years, he survives, slays the usurpers and reunites with his faithful.  Of course, critics have judged it ‘banal’ without the gods (except Athena), sex, and appropriate casting.  Interestingly, others point out that Nolan renders this a morality play in which violation of the sacrosanct Zeus’ law – sacred hospitality to strangers and foreigners – leads to the downfall of civilization … with contemporary relevance.  I think the nearly 3-hour film is definitely worth a widescreen if not IMAX view.  [*on poster]

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was the Brigadier (1*) General of the Western Army, the General (4*) of the Union Army, never losing a battle, and the 18^th two-term President of the U.S.  On a trivial note, the initial-only S., due to a clerical error at West Point, lead to nicknames ‘Uncle Sam’ (at West Point) and Unconditional Surrender (during Civil War).  Chernow has compiled another exhaustive (and exhausting) tour de force (recently read Mark Twain) that quite frankly reframes Grant’s entire career and character which had been variously distilled to a ignoramus, drunkard, butcher, philistine, undeserved battle victories, and guileless, naïve and as a consequence corrupt.  Upon deep reexamination Grant was an astute military strategist who could quickly envision the entire battlefield (and overall war strategy) in 3D and swiftly alter tactics in real-time.  Despite the military advantages, three Eastern Generals before him could not vanquish the pesky Robert E. Lee.  Grant singlehandedly crafted the conciliatory surrender at Appomattox that permitted confederates to return home with a horse and pistol without facing treason and thus paved the way for the re-unification.  Grant’s humility was notable.  His height and unprepossessing appearance led other generals to mistake his patrician-appearing physician to be him – but he never took offense.  On the eve of his inauguration, he slipped into Washington by train, rode a public coach to the White House completely undetected and to his relief no reporters.  He was completely respectful and faithful to his wife Julia despite many years apart and a hands-on doting father.  Grant constantly lamented the loss of life and never gloated in victory, visiting the injured after battle.  In the military and political realms, he was the first to sanction an African American (freed slaves) troop under his command, to advocate not only for freedom from slavery (with Lincoln), but also birthright citizenship and the right to vote (Amendments 13, 14 and 15) especially the latter, unlike many Northern abolitionists.  He actively supported Reconstruction (education of blacks) and initially quelled the domestic terrorists in the KKK.  He appointed the first black African American ambassadors, 5,000 postmistresses, the first Native American as head of Indian Affairs and invited African Americans, including Frederick Douglass, to the White House, to the chagrin of many colleagues.  He began national park system, advocated for civil service and for public education for all!  He never took a bribe himself, but his Achilles heel was to trust to a fault that colleagues and patronages were cut from the same ethical cloth as he, resulting in valid charges of corruption.  At the outset of the Civil War at age 39, he was by any account an abject failure.  He had been discharged from the Army for drunkenness, failed in business and farming falling deep into debt, finally reduced to a store clerk under his younger brothers.  And then in the most improbable transformation, the war provided opportunity and elicited the best of his abilities, and within four years he rose to the top General, never losing a battle.  Unimaginable, but I can relate to his essential character traits, core ethics and humanity.

Ulysses Macauley is a fictional 4 year-old growing during 1940’s in William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy a coming-of-age story set during 1940’s wartime.  He represents observant innocence full of curiosity and wonder.  “He smiled the smile of the Macauley people – the gentle, wise, secret smile that said ‘Hello’ to all things.”  My father, a graduate student in English had given me this inscribed pocketbook.  After my mother passed, we decluttered and donated this book to a local secondhand book shop.  Imagine my gentle surprise, when it reemerged as a recycled Christmas present to me, confirmed by the original inscription.  My father treasured this book, frequented bookstores (definitely), and retethered me to this tome.

So … what's in a name and which namesake ‘Ulysses’ is most like me?  Did I ‘inherit’ my peripatetic nature from the Greek’s interminable sojourn, or my passion from his fearsome intensity?   Did my parents ever consider, even perversely, me straddling the Mason-Dixon Line by juxtaposing Ulysses and Lee?  Indeed, as just discovered, I am completely sympatico with the General’s genuinely understated self, his bedrock ethics and moral character, and deference (including federal protection) for diversity.  And, like our fictional preschooler, I was exuberant and curious youngster, more desirous of being outside than in, and at times wish I could recapture a modicum of that wondrous  self.   So which one was I named after?  The one behind … door #3.  No, I don’t respond to Ulysses (knowing the speaker knows naught of me) or Hey U., and so U. mains a remnant to honor my parents’ intent.  And so I remain a firmly entrenched, unencumbered B with no trailing i or period … simply A B ... C?  (also American-born Chinese)

*the Ulysses in the foreground is actually a 4’ 6” Canadian woman stuntwoman – now that’s a role reversal!

Musings on Midsummer’s Eve

Some 27,000 of you have read about my ‘art auntie’ Hung Hsien [AKA Margaret Chang, married name], who just had two belated retrospectives, and my ‘tennis uncle’ T.C. Chang an eminent architect and elite elder tennis player who recently passed!  Their remarkable, triumphant diasporic stories of these two engaging, wise and avuncular souls have captivated you.  We are all living a bit vicariously through Margaret and TC … what full lives!

Fifteen years ago, my 90-something father befuddled by early dementia surprised me at dinner, ‘B, how far has the science of longevity advanced?’  I responded that some of the basic pathways and potential treatments of aging had been discovered but that there had been no human trials.  Why was he was asking, ‘I have enough projects to take me to 130 years!’  I just learned that the abstract ink artist Liu Kuo-sung, whom my father discovered in 1964 now considered the father of modern Chinese ink painting, told his daughter, ‘I have enough ideas to paint until I’m 120!’   Partners in abstract ink dreamt well beyond …  We all know how we end up, if not where, if anywhere.

I am beginning to emerge from a 2-year trek through radiation, hyperbaric oxygen – 45 feet ‘deep’, and hormonal therapy.  Although able to continue most activities (exercise, travel, academic, family), it has impacted me daily, and nightly.

Apart from supporting Margaret, it has been a busy spring.  An invited talk on Hung Hsien at the Phoenix Art Museum,

 Hung Hsien’s catalog launching in Houston,

 a talk at the American Headache Society in Orlando, a road trip to Lawrence/Kansas City to see the Song Dynasty (960-1279) painting exhibition

 and the contemporary works of Hong Zhang, 

and a glorious trip with Rachel’s family in the BVIs. 

A ‘water boarding’ adventure of a lifetime on a stable catamaran operated by a lovely marine biologist couple from New Zealand who live on the boat with their three kids.  Moving from cove to cove, daily snorkeling (some scuba) in Caribbean clear with tropical fish aplenty plus giant turtles, sting rays, barracudas, a shark and 1850 shipwreck. Besides, paddle boarding, scooters, hydrofoils were punctuated with unprecedented naps under the embracing wrap of sun, sea, breeze and gentle rolling.

 

Then, as has become annual, I abruptly transition to a distinct summer environment in Vancouver.  From mile high to sea level, temperature 70-95 to 60-75, from townhouse to 800 sq ft, from white to a 95+% Chinese diaspora (Cantonese, Taiwanese and Mandarin lingua), from car to hoof, two wheels and skytrain, from dearth to best Chinese cuisine in North America, from divided Americana to civic Canadian and from semi-retirement to Tai Chi bootcamp (16 hours this week).  Peripatetic adaptability is my summer mantra.

If you wish to purchase a copy of Hung Hsien’s catalog, it can be obtained through Asia Society Texas (txcenter@asia.society.org)

Hung Hsien’s opening at Asia Society Hong Kong

Hung Hsien’s opening at Asia Society Hong Kong

Hung Hsien’s second retrospective exhibition opened at the Asia Society Hong Kong (ASHK) on March 24th. Her first solo retrospective had opened last year on April 16th at the Asia Society Texas in Houston. Given her nonagenarian-related trepidation, she wavered, leaning mostly towards not attending. The tipping point seemed to be having high tea at the famed Peninsula Hotel (a nostalgic memory for her) and reassurance from a robust retinue of nephews Paul and Fred and significant others Chris, Michael and I all in for the Queen of modern ink painting. And so, off she flew halfway across the globe bringing 92½ years of diasporic memories!!!

Margaret as she prefers to be addressed was the 6th in the ASHK series of notable but less heralded Chinese women painters of the 20th C. In fact, she was the first one still alive and able to attend their own opening! During the event-filled opening week, she gave video and audio interviews and tours, photo ops, a breakfast presentation and Q&A, and training of the docents. Clearly, Margaret’s physical presence made the exhibition come alive through constant interactions with both art-affiliated and other attendees who connected with her art. And, her exhibition was intentionally juxtaposed with the famed Art Basel Hong Kong art fair to allow international attendees to view her show, which happened.

ASHK is a beautiful contemporary museum designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien in a lush oasis of foliage located in the mid-levels of the Admiralty District on Hong Kong Island. It opened in 2012 adjacent to the British Consulate. Grey granite and variegated marble lined the angular walls of the new construction and the remaining original structures have been repurposed into an art gallery, theater and offices. In fact, ASHK is built upon a former British armory evidenced by excavated cannons and the still visible original rails for the carts to carry heavy munitions down to the harbor. It features a zigzag bridge and covered walkways reminiscent of Suzhou temples. Above the adjacent metropolitan fray, lush banyan and palm trees sheltered chirping birds.

As anticipated many important art people attended the opening, none moreso than Liu Kuosung (age 94) her former schoolmate from National Taiwan Normal University. Professor Liu is the celebrated founder of the then avant garde Taiwan-based Fifth Moon Group of which Margaret was the most prominent woman. This was a historic reunion of two icons of abstract ink painting, both living nonagenarians! A third member of the intended reprise was the leading Hong Kong abstract ink painter Wucius Wong. All three had exhibited together in a 1983 exhibition documented in archival photographs. But alas, he was taken ill and could not join. My father was intimately involved in this history as he discovered Liu Kuosung in 1964, organized the first exhibitions of the 5th Moon Group in the US, and brought him to the US on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, thus changing the arc of his career and that of modern Chinese ink painting. Liu introduced him to Margaret in 1966.

Some of the notable global attendees included curator Lesley Ma (Met NYC), noted art historian/editor Zheng Shengtian (Vancouver), artists Zheng Chongbin (SF) and Michael Cherney (Beijing), collector/artist Hugh Moss (HK), and gallerists Daphne King (Alisan in HK). One of the remarkable serendipitous interactions was with Yvon Chu, the son of the famed Chinese-French artist Chu Teh-Chun. He had been her oil painting professor and painted her portrait featured in both exhibitions. Yvon and Margaret marveled over the unbeknownst portrait which he, as head of his father’s art foundation, needed to document for their archives. I played a role in this story as this painting deemed critical to the exhibition had been misplaced for more than 30 years. Despite exhaustive searches by the three curators, it remained hidden. On the last afternoon of the lastday of my final visit to her studio before the exhibition, I had a premonition. At the very bottom of a large stack of dusty, flat cardboard boxes beneath her husband’s desk, I fully earned the new moniker ‘art sleuth’.

The exhibition was organized by her artistic phases: traditional Chinese ink painting (birds and flowers) as a student, abstract oil and return to ink during graduate school, her mature nature-inspired organic forms for which she is known. Several works by Liu and Wong helped provide context and reprise their joint exhibition of 1983. Many of the painting legends included contemporaneous photos of her. My two favorites were of Margaret painting in intense, elegant concentration whereas another renders her as a Canadian woodswoman on Hornby Island. A final hallway displayed her Hornby Island (off Vancouver Island) series and provided a complete timeline of her artistic life.

Three works which had not been exhibited in her first retrospective included two from the her show at the Martha Sutherland's gallery in 2016 and a black/white/beige diptych 'Late Autumn' painted while in Hong Kong in 1982 when she taught ink painting at Chinese University of Hong Kong. She had not seen that latter painting in 43 years and had completely forgotten it. After staring and reabsorbing it at length, she finally declared ‘it is a beautiful painting’ and in her typical vast understatement ‘it is a good painting’ which of course with her high standards signifies outstanding.

I will try to capture the tenor of her opening. Margaret was her usual mindful and gracious self as she greeted and responded to the many attendees of all ages. Besides those who had previously crossed paths, I was impressed by how many young 20-30 something largely female attendees approached her to tell her how much they connected to her art and to ask for a photograph together. I queried one group of three young art aficionados who had just accosted Margaret as to what resonated with them. One responded ‘freedom’ and another affirmed ‘movement’ both of which Margaret unequivocally captures in her work. In addition, because this was largely Chinese, Hong Kong-based audience, they showed a deeper knowledge and appreciation of modern abstract ink painting than the largely white, Houston-based audience. The lead curator Chris told me this was the largest, most spirited opening he had seen at ASHK, certainly due to Margaret’s unique paintings and personal warmth!

What were other highlights of Margaret’s grand tour? After having slept well (who does?) during her 14-hour flight, after checking into the hotel, she declared she was ready visit a museum. Off we went to M+, a brand new (2021) contemporary art museum devoted to contemporary Asian works, 2D, 3D installations, digital, AI-generated. The featured exhibition was a major show of Zao Wu-ki’s (Chinese-French) prints which she walked through and bought a catalog. She had met him in Hong Kong in 1980s. Five hours later !!! she had viewed the rest of the museum by wheelchair, never once dozing off. The local curators told me their usual endurance is three hours at the most! Margaret’s Herculean art stamina became part of her 2026 Hong Kong legend!

At Art Basel art booths extended the length and breadth of two entire floors of the massive HK Convention Centre. For comparison to my national medical meetings, all the poster boards and pharmaceutical displays were replaced by art works, from well-known to emerging, unshielded by glass or encasements as would be in a museum. Dizzying visual delight, eye candy everywhere. We visited all eight booths featuring modern and contemporary ink painting and breezed through many more, for which Margaret often shared her pithy assessments. We spotted several oil paintings of Zao Wu-ki, perhaps the most highly regarded of the Chinese émigré-French artists, whose works were selling for 1 million USD. We also spied a complete set of Andy Warhol Campell soup cans and a Robert Indiana LOVE sculpture, for sale!

Our culinary adventures concentrated primarily on high-end Shanghainese food with xiao long bao (soup dumplings), crystal fried shrimp with peas, marinated jellyfish, century-old eggs with dofu, drunken chicken, fried egg white, roast duck, all at a high titer of gluttony. High tea at the Peninsula Hotel, a holdover from the British occupation, refreshed one of Margaret’s upscale memories. I might add it is amazing how much micro, crustless cucumber, egg, and salmon sandwiches can cost!

We should all aspire, at the age of 90, to have Margaret’s energy level, her sense of adventure, her deep appreciation of art, supported by our own dedicated posse. What an art adventure for a nonagenerian!

Margaret’s 92nd birthday celebration at Asia Society Texas

During her solo retrospective held at the Asia Society Texas from April to September, 2025, host curator Owen Duffy planned to fete Margaret on her 92nd birthday. The planets were aligned for Tiffany Beres, guest curator, and Prof. An-yi Pan (my father’s former student) to give short lectures followed by a custom-designed cake. The only misalignment was that the planned catalog rollout had been delayed.

Can one imagine a birthday at 92, an age when many contemporaries are no longer, where 135 friends and supporters attended? It speaks to Margaret’s large Houston-based community and her artistic staying power. Attendees included a trustee, friends and family, her calligraphy students, National Taiwan Normal University alumni and various art-interested viewers, many Chinese of course.

Before the celebration, Margaret and I went around the largely empty galleries. A number of attendees approached her. Beyond the obligatory praise, two common themes struck me. First, they described ‘being deeply moved by her paintings’ suggesting a more powerful impact beyond the visual. Second, they told her they had been to the exhibition two or three times, providing evidence of the first. As always, Margaret was her smiling gracious self and connected easily with her fans.

During the lectures, Margaret was intrigued by An-yi’s insightful juxtaposition of her ‘Autumn hills’ 1968 (Harvard) and Gong Xian’s ‘Ten thousand peaks and ten thousand valleys’ circa 1670 (Reitberg) – that my father wrote about. Later, she said, ‘even though there are similarities in our compositions, our styles are actually very different.’ She was seated next to Nancy Allen, a major museum donor, at the front table. But when Margaret later asked me to identify who was sitting alongside her, Margaret realized she had mistaken Nancy for a collector and admitted that she committed a small faux pas. Quickly we began to laugh at the image of two doddering matrons speaking nonsense to each other, each thinking the other must be crazy.

Afterwords, the specially-designed two-layered cake was intended to mimic Margaret’s iconic ‘Floating without end’ 1970 (CT/B Li collection) and fed the entire gathering. As you can see, it indeed captured her flowing ‘chi’ strokes and palette colors. TC was brought by Paul and sat nearby enjoying the cake. Many old friends approached TC as well.

Although Margaret received the first piece of cake, people quickly began to line up to speak with her and I daresay she didn’t get to ingest any. I marveled at the line which stretched a dozen or so long. Margaret was glowing, radiating warmth and fully engaged with each, recalling crossed paths and old times. Fortunately, friends provided some hydration. A number brought items for her to sign, one even brought a piece of calligraphy inked by Margaret in 1992. Her magnetic draw was eye-opening and heartwarming.

I began chuckling to myself as I observed the long queue … to break up the tedium, I went up to Margaret and whispered in her ear, ‘it’s like you’re the pope giving out blessings – everyone wants to be blessed by you!’ We both started laughing and laughing. Continuing to riff on her exalted status, I went up and down the line and told them that when they reached Margaret, each would be granted a additional decade of longevity. One immediately responded, ‘I‘ve been through once but need 20 years, so I’m going through again! ’When I later recounted this story to Owen, he automatically made an impromptu sign of the cross and Margaret quickly responded with her own flourish … of course air brushstrokes!

It was a wonderful celebration, Margaret was thrilled to her core and you can appreciate her sense of humor!