Chow Chung-cheng (周仲铮) studied at HFBK between 1950 and 1952. Based on currently accessible sources, she appears to be one of the earliest Chinese students at the academy, and the earliest identifiable Chinese woman in its archives. She was born into a prominent family on July 20, 1908, in Yanping, Fujian Province, China.[1] Her original name was Zhou Lianquan (周莲荃). In 1926, she decided to leave for Europe. She initially planned to study medicine in the United Kingdom, later transferred to Sciences Po in Paris to study political science, and earned a doctoral degree in 1935. In the winter semester of 1950/51 she enrolled at HFBK and continued her studies until the winter semester of 1952/53. Chow Chung-cheng developed a sustained and stable artistic career that continued until her death in Bonn in 1996. Most recently, she was included in the exhibition “InformELLEs: Women Artists and Art Informel in the 1950s/60s” at the Neue Galerie Kassel.
Pls refer to the detailed essay on Chow Chung-cheng that discusses her biography and practice against the background of both the Chinese and geopolitical situations at the time: https://tiaa.hfbk.net/essays/how-did-she-arrive-here-a-chinese-woman-s-departure-education-and-artistic-practice-in-the-twentieth-century
[1] Wikipedia, s.v. "Chow Chung-cheng," last modified May 22, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chow_Chung-cheng.