Interview with Yvonne Chen | Houston Asian American Archive - Oral History Collection

Yvonne Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1965. She was born to two parents, her mother being a music teacher and her father being a watercolor painter. She attended Chinese Culture University in Taiwan as a cinema/drama major, and following graduation in 1989, she immigrated to the U.S and attended the New York Institute of Technology as a communication arts graduate student. However, after a year, she dropped out and pursued the Fashion Institute of Technology as a fashion design student. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology, she returned to Taiwan to take care of her parents. She worked for luxury goods businesses such as Bluebell Taiwan, Mercedes, Esprit, Coach (Tasa Meng), and opened a small boutique business. She worked for ASAP photo imaging in Houston, but following her father’s passing, she would only focus on artistically commemorating her father. In 2015, Yvonne commemorated her father’s watercolor paintings by opening an exhibition at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and would continue to exhibit her father’s work through multiple exhibitions around Taiwan and Houston. Recently, in 2022, she published her father’s painting catalog in Taiwan and her exhibition received great honor and appreciation from the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner. In Houston, she is the creator and president of the CZH Gallery Foundation, and the vice president of the Chinese Culture University Association and the Taipei Municipal Zhong Shan Girls High School Alumni Association. Additionally, Yvonne is a member of multiple organizations: the Chinese American Relief Effort, Taiwanese Association of America - Houston, the Houston Taipei Society, and the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce. She is currently working on the biography of her father and hopes his story will be published and/or produced in the upcoming years.
In this interview, Yvonne Chen discusses her artistic household, educational background, learning about and artistically commemorating her father after his passing. Chen also describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on her exhibitions and also shares her advice on leadership and how to effectively create cross-cultural connections. In the later half of the interview, Chen describes her father’s life story, particularly how Taiwan’s turbulent political and historical context impacted his upbringing and artistry. She also describes the motivations for her father in portraying Taiwanese landscapes in his paintings and how he made his paintings. Chen ends the interview by referring to a section in his father’s diary and how he never regretted being an artist despite all the difficulties he underwent.
Interviewee: Yvonne Chen
Interviewer: Ruchi Tiwari
Interview Date: October 23, 2023
Transcribed by: Ruchi Tiwari
Reviewed by: Grace Park, Daniel Cho
Track Time: 1:41:09
This interview was conducted virtually via Zoom.
This recording and transcript form part of a collection of oral history interviews conducted by the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University.
Visit us at haaa.rice.edu.