Chinese painter Liu Dan was born in 1953 into a scholarly family that educated its children in philosophy, poetry, painting and calligraphy. "My grandfather taught me calligraphy because he believed that writing was the mark of a gentleman, just as in the Western world, it is his speech," he says. Thanks to him, Liu's calligraphically-trained hand marked him as an exceptional artist in later life.

Liu's formal education, however, was short-lived. In 1966, Mao's Cultural Revolution tore the family apart. Liu, with other young intellectuals, was sent to the countryside, where he spent years farming rice. The purpose of the Revolution, according to the artist, was to erase the four "olds"old thinking, old culture, old customs and old ha...