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CHO FU LAI 
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A REMEMBRANCE
Frank was born in Beijing, China and came to the United States in 1947.

CHINESE OPERA
Self-taught, Frank played the hu-chin and was one of the founding members of the Chinese Opera Club in New York City.

BRUSHWORK
Having studied Chinese brush painting with master C. C. Wang, Frank opened Mi Chou, the first gallery in the United States to exclusively feature Chinese artists.

TEA CRAFT
Expert tea taster and blender, Frank traveled extensively in search of fine teas that could be imported and distributed in the United States.

​HUMANITARIAN
​Frank's brother was killed by Japanese troops near the conclusion of WWII. In memory of Cho Huan-Lai, Frank's dying wish was to establish an endowed fund to support academic research at Macalester College.

Brushwork

Frank the Curator

"PAINTINGS FROM THE MI CHOU GALLERY COLLECTION, MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK
Believed to be the first Chinese art gallery in America to exhibit and sell classical and contemporary Chinese paintings, Mi Chou was founded by Frank Fulai Cho in 1954 with support from his teacher, C. C. Wang, one of the most renowned Chinese art connoisseurs and collectors of the 1900s. Mi Chou’s exhibitions were unprecedented in style and quality – whether classical, contemporary, or solo shows – and frequently well-received and reviewed inThe New York Times, ARTnews, and other important press of that time.

One of the artist’s that the Mi Chou Gallery exhibited and made famous was Chen Chi-kwan (also spelled Chen Qi Kuan). The gallery gave him his first one-man show and introduced his work to Professor Nelson I. Wu of Yale’s Art History Department, who wrote an introductory essay which resulted in much press coverage and the exhibition’s eventual great success. Since then, Chen Chi-kwan’s art is widely collected and recognized by academia, collectors, and the general public.
Mi Chou was perhaps the first - but not the only American art gallery to focus largely on ink painting. In California, several galleries opened in quick succession beginning in the early 1960s. These included East Wind Gallery in San Francisco, opened by artist Wang Liu-sang in 1961; the Chinese Art Gallery - also in San Francisco - opened by artist Lim … in 1965; and another Chinese Art Gallery in Carmel that operated in the 1960s and 1970s under the direction of artists Yang Ling-fu and later Cheng Yet-por. James Yeh-jau Liu operated the Han Syi Studio as a gallery in Tiburon beginning in 1967. Hungarian American Les Laky also showcased ink painting at the higher profile Laky Gallery, with branches in Carmel, San Francisco and Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s. Laky exhibited artists James Yeh-jau Liu, Wang Chang-chieh and Cheng Yet-por, as well as a legendary series of exhibitions featuring the experimental splashed ink work of Chang Dai-chien. Artist Frederik Wong  exhibited with Mi Chou Gallery beginning in the late 1950s …"

— From Virtual Asian-American Art Museum Project

Frank the Author

  • Asian America Art: A history, 1850-1970
  • The question of brushwork in Chinese painting, Chinese American Forum, October 1996 (see below)
  • Reminiscences of Mi Chou, Chinese American Forum, May 1985 (see below)

Frank the Painter

In addition to running his gallery and publishing papers on the subject of Mi Chou and brush work, Frank was also an avid painter, having studied under master C.C. Wang. 

As is customary for students who are seeking to learn from their mentors, Frank was instructed to study and copy a famous painting titled Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, first painted during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) by Huang Gong-Wang. See excerpt at right for details, or to see a photo of the original and a deeper dive on the subject, click here. (Note that the information contained in the referenced link has not been fact-checked.)

The scroll shown below is Frank's version of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. The painting was created over the span of several years in Colorado and served as a sort of meditation and refuge for Frank during stressful times.

The long, horizontal format is particularly conducive to telling a story because it is meant to reveal only a part of the narrative at a time, much as one might experience a journey or landscape in real life. The calligraphy that bookends the artwork is attributed to master Wang and another esteemed art authority based in Shanghai.

This piece is meant to be viewed from right to left in the traditional manner, so the correct way to advance through the slide show is to click the left arrow manually rather than selecting the "play" button which will then take you through the experience in reverse.
"This long handscroll by Huang Gong-Wang is among the most famous paintings in Chinese history. It is considered an epitome of literati landscape painting and has enormous influence on later ages. Depicted in this handscroll is an idealized panorama of the Fuchun mountains, west of Hangzhou, to which Huang returned in his later years. Beginning with a vast expanse of river scenery at the right, we move on to the mountains and hills, then back to areas of river and marsh that end with a conical peak. We finally come to the end of our wandering through the landscape as it ebbs out in the distant ink-wash hills over the water. The composition was first laid out in light ink and then finished with successive applications of darker and drier brushwork. Sometimes shapes were slightly altered, contours strengthened, and texture strokes or tree groups added here and there. Finally, brush dots were distributed across the work as abstracted accents. Buildings, tree limbs, and foliage are reduced to the simplest of forms as Nature has been translated into the artist's terms of brush and ink.

According to his inscription, Huang wrote that he created the design in a single outburst of energy in one sitting. He worked on the painting on and off when the mood struck him from about 1347 to 1350. This representation of the Fuchun mountains was painted for a fellow Daoist named Master Wu-Yung and became Huang's greatest surviving masterpiece. 

Huang spent the remainder of his life in the Fuchun mountains near Hangzhou. In his famous Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, he utilized Zhao Meng-Fu's method of interweaving thick and dry brushstrokes to create visually tangible forms. He painted darker brushstrokes over lighter ones, and drier brushstrokes over wetter ones, to create richer textures and a stronger sense of tactile surface."