Choo Quilim was born in Singapore. After many years of college education and working experience in the West, he is interested in the interaction of both western and Chinese civilizations. Chen Wen Hsi (陳文希) from Singapore instilled the love of paintings during his teen. Later he picked up his love of western watercolour and the Chinese ink painting in free style. He is indebted to two important teachers: Louis Smith, the art teacher from the America and Dr. Chui Pui Chee (徐沛之), the Chinese calligraphy teacher from Hong Kong. He also likes poems from the Tang Dynasty, and is a member of Pu She (璞社) at the Hong Kong Baptist University.

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He has decided to exhibit with paintings in ”A Decade of Grace” because in a bookshop in GuiLin (桂林市) he serendipitously bought a catalogue, “Wang Dongling: The Bamboo Path”. There were stimulating discussions about the future direction of Chinese arts in the catalogue. So, he named his painting series “the Bamboo Grove”. Su Shi (蘇軾) used to praise Wang Wei (王維): his poems so painterly, while his paintings so poetics.  So, an attempt was made, trying to combine painting and written poem together. This approach has been attempted before:  Wang Chi-chien (王己千) from New York and Lim Tze Peng (林子平) from Singapore. The poem in all the paintings was by Chang Jian (常建) from Tang Dynasty. It was selected because it contained the two words “Bamboo Path”.

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As all his paintings are ink and watercolour on paper, the successful mounting of these paintings is crucial. So, he would like to thank Cheng Kat Sang (鄭吉生) for his expertise.