An artist whose heart beats for world

In a world facing increasing conflict and instability, a Chinese Canadian is sending messages of love and peace through his artwork.

William Ho, 60, who arrived in Canada from Hong Kong 42 years ago, teaches Chinese brush painting at his art gallery in Unionville, Markham, a suburb of Toronto.

He is known as a goodwill ambassador of love and hope, and founder of One Heart Beat, a global initiative to help needy people and vulnerable children through art, culture and relief work.

The United Nations invited Ho to exhibit his art and his masterpiece, also called One Heart Beat, at its headquarters in New York in 2006, and he then became a UN global partner.

"This one heartbeat that all humanity shares has been demonstrated by a single stroke in Chinese ink, symbolizing the simple truth that we, as one global family, are all interconnected by the common one heartbeat," he illustrated.

Versions of his one-stroke painting One Heart Beat are on display at UN Headquarters, the Canadian National Museum of Civilization, Beijing University and cities across the world.

Ho has been doing Chinese art and Chinese brush painting for more than 50 years and teaching for over 30. He has more than 3,000 students from around the world.

"I actually started in Western art when I was younger, working in pencil drawing, oil painting, water color, et cetera. However, after I encountered Chinese brush painting a couple of years later, my eyes and mind were enlightened," Ho recalled.

Chinese brush painting has utilized almost all the colours going back at least 2,000 years. In many instances, Ho said that it is Western painting and artists learning through or being influenced by Chinese painting. Monet and his Water Lilies series is one good example, Ho said.

Chinese and Western artists should respect, appreciate and learn from each other, Ho said. "Self respect and mutual respect are the keys for real cultural exchange and global harmony."

Ho's artworks embody his philosophy that every life is non-replaceable and precious; people of different races, religious affiliations and beliefs should all be respected, as global harmony is rooted in global and local mutual respect.

That is a reason he emphasises that "lives can be the most beautiful masterpieces of art, and art can be living".

Ho said one of his passions and missions is to bring Chinese culture "back to" the centre stage of the world, as it had been for thousands of years.

"Being of Chinese descent, on one hand, we're very proud of our 5,000 years of history and civilization, on the other hand, we have a painful history marked by weaknesses and humiliation one century ago," Ho said.

A principle of ancient Chinese wisdom has been: "Don't overstate ourselves; don't understate ourselves."

"Non-Chinese people, particularly Western people, often misunderstand other cultures, particularly Chinese culture," Ho said. "They prefer to self-believe and they think themselves understood when, in fact, they have half-knowledge or half-understanding."

One of the themes in Ho's speeches delivered at UN Headquarters, the Canadian Parliament and Beijing University was "position well China, and position well the world".

Ho said that some countries demand special treatment from the world or the international court in the name of democracy and freedom.

"This mentality is sick, selfish and bad. The people of the world and Mother Nature are saying no to the greedy. In fact, the whole world cannot afford these types of demands. We as a global family wouldn't allow this to happen." Ho said.

Contrary to greed, Chinese culture believes that "less is more".

"We create paintings not only through the expression of the look or form of the subjects, but more importantly, through the void, emptiness and nothingness — spaces of imagination," he said.

From his perspective, there are three pillars of Chinese culture: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, with Confucian thinking predominant. But in Chinese brush painting, Taoism has more influence.

"Chinese culture has been enlightening the world through our art, literature, philosophy, medicine, technologies in astronomy, navigation and four great inventions (papermaking, commercial printing, gunpowder and the compass)," Ho said.