The artist behind the author

When Yung Liu, widely known as Liu Yong, talks about observing begonias, he doesn’t just describe them. He performs them. He extends his forearms, bends his wrists, and lets his body sway, tracing the arc of branches and the quiet tension of leaves unfurling. The gesture is instinctive, almost childlike. His eyes light up as he drifts into memory — Taipei night markets alive with open-air opera, food stalls steaming under dim bulbs, and the hum of a city that shaped him. Then, unexpectedly, his voice falters. He recalls fishing trips with his father, and emotion breaks through.

At 77, Liu is not discussing his literary career — the one that made him a household name across Chinese-speaking communities.

Instead, he is revealing a parallel life that has long run beneath the surface: painting. Now, that side of him has taken center stage. At the National Museum of China in Beijing, Liu presents Poetic Years: Dreams Flow into Paintings, an exhibition of 89 works in traditional Chinese ink styles, on display through June 8. The show charts decades of exploration — from flower-and-bird compositions and tranquil moonlit scenes to lively reinterpretations of urban life reminiscent of the 12th-century classic Qingming Shanghe Tu (Along the River During the Qingming Festival), but filtered through a modern sensibility.

The exhibition also marks a personal return. More than 30 years ago, Liu frequented the same institution — then known as the National Museum of Chinese History — gathering material as a television scriptwriter exploring Chinese civilization.

“I visited many times, for there were so many artifacts of great importance here,” he says, adding that the “serendipity” and “decades of hard work” have brought him back, so that he can rekindle his link with the national museum and, this time, with his own art.

Liu’s reputation as a writer is formidable. Since the 1970s, he has produced best-selling essays, fables and art theories, often drawing on everyday life to distill reflections on human nature, resilience, and time.

“His prose is known for its philosophical clarity, wit and understated humor, qualities that also permeate his paintings,” says Huang Xiaojiao, the exhibition’s curator at the National Museum of China.