In 2000, a renowned music educator known as Mrs Lucien Wang donated her personal effects to NAFA. After migrating from China and studying in Europe, she settled in Singapore and conducted piano lessons in her home at Loke Yew Street. From the early 1940s through the late 1980s, she fostered a new generation of talented musicians including Ong Lip Tat, Lim Jing Jing and Benjamin Loh. She was also a fine art student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), graduating from the sixth cohort of the Academy that was established in 1938.

As part of archival and documentation efforts, ISEAA and the University Scholars Programme (USP) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) collaborated in 2012 to create a new module taught at the USP. A group of NUS undergraduates employed a range of narrative concepts to re-examine historical events and explore biography though creative writing, painting and video production.  

This publication also features archival materials such as old photographs, handwritten correspondence and personal artefacts that provide Wang’s biographical information. It is a tribute to a little known cultural icon in Singapore history, whose life, values and achievements cast light on the artistic and cultural evolution of Asia Pacific and Chinese émigrés in Southeast Asia.