When I was the Singapore Professional Center Chairman, I was the leader of about 30 different professionals making our first visit to China in the autumn of 1979 (when the country first opened to the outside world since it became a communist country). During the journey to Xian, a visit to the Stele (stone tablets with carvings of calligraphy and painting) Museum introduced me to the art of Stone Rubbings. The Chinese discovered this method of copying old inscriptions with paper and ink in the early seventh century or earlier.
A piece of paper was placed over stone slabs, steles, or flat metal surfaces (with engraved characters or patterns). Then ink or other pigments (such as red cinnabar) would be used to show the characters and graphics to make printed pieces of transferred images.
Please enjoy a set of four stone tablets rubbing black-and-white artworks featuring ancient beauties carrying different flowers in their hands, which I had acquired during one of my subsequent trips to China. The four pieces of black and white artworks separately depict: (1) a lady carrying a vase of white magnolia flowers, (2) a lady holding a large basket of yellow Winter jasmine flowers, (3) a lady holding a pot of white and yellow daffodils, and (4) a lady carrying a basket of fragrant orchids on her shoulder.
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Tan It Koon
Before retirement, Dr Tan It Koon was, among many appointments, Head of Clinical Biochemistry at SGH’s Dept of Pathology. He was the Deputy Chairman of the National Theatre Trust and Chairman for Grants and Scholarships of the Spore Cultural Foundation. He received the National Day Awards, PBM, and PPA, for his contribution to cultural and community development and excellence in Public Administration.
