KEY to the HEART

Hong Kong psychiatric nurse-turned-painter Chu Hing Wah looks back at his three-decade art career that takes viewers into the world of people with mental health issues

By Zabrina Lo

Chu Hing Wah loves Vincent van Gogh. “I admire how he translates his [poor mental health] onto the canvas,” he says. And while the Hong Kong artist’s childlike—albeit usually dark-toned—painting style is vastly different from the Dutch painter’s vibrant colours and powerful brushstrokes, they’re both connected by the concept that art, in Chu’s words, “is a window to a person’s soul: what cannot be verbalised or seen from the surface can be expressed through one’s brushes and canvases.” This isn’t just another artist catchphrase—from the 1960s to 1980s, decades before Chu’s celebrated career as an artist, he worked as a psychiatric nurse at Siu Lam Centre and Castle Peak Psychiatric Hospital. It was here that he found inspiration for a series of paintings portraying the lives of people with mental…

You're reading a preview of

Tatler Hong Kong (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.