A Tribute to Robert Chang Chung Shien (1927–2024)
It is a daunting task to write about a legendary personality whose flamboyant life has been well-documented—particularly when his activities have been covered by so many column inches in the last two decades by those who knew him well. In the field of Chinese art, the name Robert Chang Chung Shien brings a sense of awe and evokes an unequivocal sense of respect among later generations. He surpassed and outlived all his advocates and severe critics of his own generation. Born in 1927 Shanghai to a well-to-do antiques dealer, Zhang Zhong Ying, Robert was the third child and was given the birth name of Yong Yuan, which may be translated aptly as ‘eternally the first’. The characters Chung Shien were later given to him as his style (or courtesy) name. He later adopted the Western name Robert when he arrived in Hong Kong in the 1950s.
As a child, Robert was the most unconventional, bold, rebellious, and adventurous of all his siblings. He had an older sister, Yun’E; an older brother, Yong Fang (Herbert), born in 1925; a younger sister, Yong Zhen (Alice), born in 1932; and a younger brother, Yong Ru (Albert), born in 1938. An early formative experience was Robert being tasked by his father to take charge of a department store at the age of fourteen. In this way, he honed his steely nerves as he navigated his way through the turbulent, inflationary years of prewar Shanghai. Robert’s long career can be divided into different phases: the frivolous early ‘dandy years’, the diligent Hong Kong antiques-dealer phase, the entrepreneurial period when he firmly earned his ‘Number One’ status in the field of Chinese art, and finally the emeritus travelling years.
Robert Chang at his Arabian-nights-themed 90th birthday party, Hong Kong, 2017
Robert’s ‘dandy years’ in Shanghai and Suzhou were carefree, and he whiled away his youth in the then-popular pastime of dancing halls and in the company of his Suzhou pingtan friends. From an early age, Robert loved Suzhou pingtan, a traditional performing art form that had been passed down from the Song dynasty, which blends the use of musical and oral formats in storytelling. Robert was gifted with good musical pitch and became a proficient pingtan singer himself. He was able to sing and recite most of the stories without referring to musical scores. His privileged acquaintances and his father’s clients undoubtedly made deep impressions on him. Robert once recalled a teenage encounter with the renowned collector and connoisseur Sir Percival David, who visited his father’s antiques gallery in Shanghai. Robert curiously observed this slightly built man with a beaked nose who chain-smoked nonstop, with freshly lit cigarettes supplied by an assistant in quick succession, even though the previous one was barely spent. Little did the teenager know that five decades later Sir Percival David’s imperial ceramics collection would be a major inspiration that profoundly shaped his own collecting journey.
Robert’s father was a wise and astute businessman. Antiques dealing in postwar Shanghai was a difficult profession, as many wealthy patrons had either fled the devastated city or left for new lives abroad. His father advised him to leave for Hong Kong in 1950. The youngster’s tutelage in antiques dealing was entrusted to his father’s old friend, Tao Rong, who had opened a gallery on Wyndham Street on Hong Kong Island the year before. Here Robert lived the frugal and diligent existence of an apprentice: waking up early in the mornings, cleaning the gallery, sleeping on wooden boards in the gallery at night, and studiously learning the trade by day. In 1951, with the help of his father and brother Herbert, Robert started a business exporting antiques from the mainland to Hong Kong. This enterprising move proved to be a highly lucrative venture, as foreign funds were much needed in China at the time. Over the next decade, Robert’s father carefully packed wooden crates with every antique and work of art he was able to source, and he sent the boxes to Hong Kong for sale. In his meticulous letters to his son, he gave instructions detailing the importance of each object to ensure they were not undersold. Robert learned a great deal from his father’s regular handwritten missives. Before long, the growing extended Chang family in China relied entirely on income remitted from the sale of antiques. By early 1960, Robert sponsored his sister Alice to study English in London, where she worked part-time for the antiques dealer Bluett and Son, thereby dramatically changing her own destiny.
Chi Fan Tsang and Robert Chang, St Petersburg, 2014
The export business came to an abrupt end as the Cultural Revolution took its toll in China. Businesses with foreign connections were the hardest hit, and both Robert’s father and brother Herbert suffered immensely as a consequence. In Hong Kong, Robert continued his antiques business, expanded into the wholesale market for jewels and jewellery, and opened a number of galleries in Wyndham Street and on Canton Hankou Roads in Kowloon. This was a period when Robert began to travel regularly to Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions in London and established business ties with London dealers such as Alfred Speelman and Samuel Sydney Marchant.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Robert firmly established himself as an international Asian antiques dealer in Hong Kong. Not only did he supply the auction rooms of Sotheby’s and, later, Christie’s, but through the auction houses he was able to buy from one location and consign to another, clearing strong profit margins as he moved lots from different sale locations in London, New York, and Hong Kong. Robert also had the foresight to form a collection of imperial ceramics of the early Qing emperors of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods. He also had excellent business acumen and diversified his interests by collecting modern Chinese paintings, which were selling for modest prices at the time. His Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Lin Fengmian paintings unwittingly garnered a higher return for his money than his famed imperial ceramics collection.
By 1993, Robert had established a reputation for himself as the dapper, well-dressed dealer whose favourite attire was white and who firmly held the ‘Number One’ paddle in auction rooms around the world. As an impressionable youngster, I first met the already-famous Robert in 1993, when he boldly stepped into the viewing room of Christie’s London dressed in a white shirt, white trousers, white socks, and white shoes. The ensemble gave him an air of distinction, but the most memorable detail was his white belt embellished with the initials ‘RC’ formed by diamond studs. Robert’s first exhibition of imperial Qing ceramics took place at Christie’s London in the summer of 1993 under the hall name of Yun Hai Ge, ‘The Pavilion Between the Clouds and the Sea’, inspired by a flight to one of the many auctions around the world. It is destined that our lives became inextricably linked from that first exhibition. In the ensuing years, we formed a strong working relationship that lasted over the next three decades. Robert sold his ceramics collection in three parts in 1999, 2000, and 2006 before he restlessly went on to collect cloisonné enamel wares, snuff bottles, and rhinoceros horn and jade carvings. Finally, in his twilight years, the donation of his cloisonné enamel pieces to the Shanghai Museum—which included his most treasured pair of gigantic braziers from the Audrey Love Collection—and his grand finale, showcasing more than three hundred pieces of jade carvings at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, were Robert’s finest and proudest moments and the crowning achievements of his extraordinary career.
In the National Museum of Iran with its ceramics curator, Chi Fan Tsang, Margaret Chang and Robert Chang, 2015
From a personal perspective, some of us will remember Robert’s love of life, sense of humour, passion for beautiful things and, above all, his unstinting energy in the pursuit of buying wondrous Chinese works of art. During his later years, we travelled to many places together, including Dubai, where Robert sang Suzhou pingtan into the dark desert nights. Much fun was also had rummaging through the warehouses of St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, looking for their cloisonné enamels that were not on display. The most unforgettable visit was to the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, where through Robert’s widely known reputation as a collector we were able to handle some of the most important ceramics that are totally inaccessible to the public, including their prized Yuan dynasty blue-ground white dragon barbed-rim charger and the Yuan blue-and-white mythical beast flask. Several crates of Yongle blue-and-white ewers, stacks of early Ming chargers, and numerous early Ming tianqiuping vases in the basement of the museum made him laugh out loud with joy; he was like a child in a sweet shop.
All else being said, it is for Robert Chang’s enduring passion and great dedication to Chinese art that we will remember him with tremendous fondness and admiration. His generous spirit will live on through the Robert Chang Art Education Charitable Foundation where his legacy will continue to help to promote both art and education.
Chi Fan Tsang is Deputy Chairman, Asia Pacific and International Director, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Department, Christie’s.