CHISWICK Auctions is to sell a Qi Baishi painting from the collection of a journalist who once trod on Chairman Mao Zedong’s toes.
David Chipp (1927-2008) was the first Western journalist in Communist China where he worked as a Reuters correspondent from 1956-60. He recalls his faux pas in his posthumously published memoirs Mao’s Toe. He adds that the leader of the People’s Republic was amused by the incident.
The memoirs also record his translator’s tip to buy paintings by Qi Baishi in the year the artist died (1864-1957).