Using a manifesting case-study example of ink works by globally recognised Chinese-born American artist Zheng Chongbin (born 1961), this paper sheds light on selected key milestones amongst many others, which contemporary Chinese ink art encountered at the turn of the twenty-first century. The discussed milestones relate to the rediscovery of Western modern art in 1980s post-Mao China, the widespread phenomenon of migration from China at the turn of the 1990s as well as the very recent international boom of Chinese ink art in both pictorial and digital media. By encountering first-hand these milestones, Zheng Chongbin formulated his own unique takes on China’s centuries-old medium of ink, which, as this paper shows, pertinently demonstrate how, despite being culturally and historically rooted, ink can be the medium and concept of a much broader international and contemporary relevance.