Page 56 - Bonhams July 7th 2020 Hong Kong Fine Chinese Paintings

The UCCL Collection of 20th Century Chinese Paintings

倫敦高校中國委員會珍藏二十世紀中國書畫

LOTS 169-179
The “Universities’ China Committee in London” (UCCL)

UCCL is an educational grant-giving charitable trust established in 1925, and formalised by Royal Charter
in 1932. Originally founded to provide hospitality for Chinese Students in London, its mission is now to
provide for “two-way flow of academic exchange between China and the UK”, and “the encouragement of
China-focused studies in the UK”. The UCCL contributes towards The Great Britain-China Educational Trust
(GBCET) Chinese Student Awards, which is a charitable fund supporting Chinese students’ costs of study in
the UK.

The UCCL administers its own awards in support of individuals involved in higher level UK-China academic
exchange: recipients are “Chinese scholars who seek to make research visits to the UK or UK-based
scholars working on, or studying, China-focussed subjects at UK Universities who need to conduct visits
to China for specific research or lecture reasons”. In addition to the GBCET, the UCCL supports “academic
conferences and the promotion and teaching of Chinese and other Chinese studies in the UK”. It is a major
supporter of the UK China Library Group, through which it helps provide Chinese language e-journals to
Universities in the UK.

The UCCL Collection of 20th Century Chinese Paintings

The Origins
The 11 very interesting paintings being offered by the UCCL at Bonhams, Hong Kong were acquired in
London around 1950, apparently directly as gifts to the UCCL from the artists themselves, and preserved
intact but largely unknown in the UK ever since.

Although records at the UCCL are incomplete, it appears that this group of paintings was assembled and
presented to the UCCL under the auspices of a Chinese national based in London, Dr Ai(t)chen K Wu, “as
an expression of gratitude”.
Wu Aichen (1891-1965), a native of Fujian Province, passed the provincial examinations in the very last
years of the Qing Dynasty, and studied at Beijing Normal University and Beijing University, majoring of Mine
Engineering. He served in various posts in the Republican administrations and in the early 1930’s he was
posted as Special Envoy for the Nationalist government to Xinjiang Province. He subsequently served in the
foreign service in Prague and Vladivostok in 1936, and then resigned in 1938 and enrolled into the University

Visit of the Chancellor H.R.H The Duchess of Kent to the Left to right: Chen Xiaonan, Zhang Am’zhi, Zhang Qianying, Wu
Department of Chinese Studies 4th February 1983 Zuoren, and Fei Chengwu, London, 1947
54 | BONHAMS