[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhang Shuqi was highly regarded for his flower-and-bird genre of classical Chinese paintings in the early 20th century. He spent years in the 1940s and ’50s exhibiting and speaking on Chinese art in North America, before passing away in the United States in 1957.

An exhibition now on at the National Museum of China pays tribute to Zhang who cared about his motherland and people until the last moment of his life, and who contributed greatly to the Sino-US cultural exchanges. Paintings on show are donated by Zhang’s family in the US to three Chinese museums.