Yeh Chi Wei 叶之威 叶 之 威

A founder's journey.创会之路。

Born Ye Baoshi in Hongwei, Minhou County, Fuzhou, China in 1913, Yeh Chi Wei moved to Singapore with his mother and elder sister in 1919, and the family relocated shortly after to Sarawak, where they cleared forest land to grow rubber and other crops. Sent back to Fuzhou by his mother in 1925 to continue his education, he completed secondary school and enrolled at the Xinhua Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai in 1933 — against his father's wishes — to study Western painting, graduating in 1936. With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, he fled to Singapore, and went on to teach art in schools across Sarawak, Malaya and Singapore before settling permanently with his family in Singapore. 叶之威原名叶保時，1913 年生于中国福州闽侯县鸿尾村。1919 年，他随母亲 与姐姐移居新加坡，其后家人不久迁往沙捞越，以垦荒种植橡胶及其他农作物维生。1925 年，母亲 将他送回福州继续求学，中学毕业后，1933 年他不顾父亲反对，考入上海新华艺术专科学校修习 西洋画，1936 年毕业。1937 年中日战争爆发后，他逃往新加坡，此后辗转于沙捞越、马来亚 与新加坡多所学校任教美术，最终携家眷定居新加坡。

The Association traces its origin to the Ten People Art Exhibition of the late 1960s — a circle that included Yeh Chi Wei, Tan Seah Boey, Choo Keng Kwang and Lim Tze Peng, whose travels through India, Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal reshaped what South-East Asian painting could mean. Within the group, known in English as "The Ten Artists," Yeh Chi Wei served as leader, guiding and encouraging the younger artists. 协会的源头可追溯至上世纪六十年代末的《十人画展》——这一群体包括叶之威、 陈城梅、朱庆光与林子平，他们游历印度、泰国、柬埔寨与尼泊尔的经历，重新塑造了 东南亚绘画的可能。在这一群体中，叶之威担任领导者，引领并鼓励年轻一辈的艺术家。

Yeh Chi Wei went on to formally constitute the South-East Asia Art Association on 26 September 1970. On 17 November of that year, the Nanyang Siang Pau newspaper published an interview with him discussing the newly-formed Association and its purpose. 叶之威其后于 1970 年 9 月 26 日正式创立东南亚美术协会。同年 11 月 17 日， 《南洋商报》刊登了对他的专访，谈及新成立的协会及其宗旨。

Yeh was among the early cohort of professionally-trained artists teaching in Singapore and Malaya through the mid-20th century, and his tenure at Chung Cheng High School in the 1950s and '60s left a lasting mark — former students remembered him as a demanding teacher with exacting standards. In 1953 he helped establish the school's Art Society, which ran regular competitions and annual exhibitions. As leader of the Ten Men Group, he guided the collective through six overseas trips and five thematic exhibitions in under a decade — an unprecedented undertaking for artists of the time, given how much travel and exhibition-making cost in those days. 叶之威属于二十世纪中叶新马地区最早一批受过专业训练并任教的艺术家， 他在 1950 至 60 年代任教于中正中学期间尤具影响，昔日学生回忆他治学严谨、要求甚高。 1953 年，他协助创办中正中学美术学会，定期举办比赛与年度展览。作为十人画会的领军人物， 他带领画会在不到十年间完成六次海外采风与五场主题展览——在当年旅行与办展皆所费不赀的 年代，这是前所未有的创举。

His influence continued well beyond the Association's founding — later generations of members, including Ang Teck Lee, studied under him directly, carrying his approach to painting forward into the Association's ongoing work. 他的影响远不止于协会的创立——包括洪德利在内的后辈会员，都曾直接 师从于他，将其绘画理念延续于协会至今的工作之中。

In 1978, Yeh and his wife left Singapore to retire to an orchard they named "Xin Yi Yuan" (辛夷园), in Sedili, Kota Tinggi, Johor, where he continued painting and planned a second solo exhibition. He died in Singapore in 1981, of brain cancer. His artistic achievements have since regained wider recognition, notably through the 2010 survey exhibition "Fengcai Zaixian" (风采再现), organised by the National Art Gallery Singapore. 1978 年，叶之威与夫人离开新加坡，退休隐居于柔佛哥打丁宜素里里 （Sedili, Kota Tinggi）的一座果园，取名"辛夷园"，期间仍持续作画，并计划筹备第二次个展。 1981 年，他于新加坡因脑癌病逝。近年来，他的艺术成就重新受到关注，其中包括新加坡国家 美术馆于 2010 年为他举办的回顾展"风采再现"。

Biographical detail on this page draws on Low Sze Wee, "Pioneer artist: Yeh Chi Wei," Culturepaedia, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, and on the Yeh Chi Wei Archive, maintained by his family. 本页部分生平资料参考自刘思伟，《先驱艺术家：叶之威》，新加坡华族 文化中心《文化通》（Culturepaedia），以及由其家人维护的 叶之威档案（Yeh Chi Wei Archive）。