Shao Fang Sheng

Shao Fang Sheng (born September 13, 1917) is a well known Chinese artist who is also one of the last remaining apprentices of Frank Lloyd Wright. Of Shao Fang, Olgivanna Lloyd-Wright observed she, “made friends with unmatched speed and always with those she could profit by most.” Upon arrival to the United States, she stayed with Frank Lloyd Wright and Olgivanna Lloyd Wright, where she cooked and entertained guests including John Wayne, James Stewart and other actors and socialites. She taught Mandarin to John King Fairbank, a well known scholar from Harvard University, at the American Embassy in Nanking. Furthermore her ability to paint with watercolours was noticed by several well known painting masters and she was commissioned by the Nationalist Government of China, to duplicate the fresco within the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, situated in the Taklamakan Desert of China. Her late husband Sheng Pao Sheng was also an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright and a respected architect.

Early life

Shao came from a well known industrial family that had their roots in Changzhou, China. She was born and raised during the overthrow of the Ching Dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China.

She was a very athletic youth, representing her city, Tientsin, as a short stop and nationally in softball as a teenager.