In the autumn of 2008, Beijing’s highly prestigious Diaoyutai State Guesthouse hosted an exhibition of jewelry created by world-renown designer Wallace Chan Shiying.

More than 30 precious pieces were displayed as part of the exhibition. Included were Chan’s butterfly series, I Am Flying and Butterfly’s Dream, a set imbued with strong Chinese sensibilities and vividly symbolic elements. The creativity, subtlety and refined aesthetic sense conveyed by those works combined for a powerful visual presentation.

Chan attaches jewels to titanium frames weighing one-sixth of the equivalent mass of 18K gold. Thus the jewelry is lighter and easier to wear. The originality provides designers with more space to fulfill their creative potential.

Collectors from European nations, Japan and Taiwan have widely praised Chan’s work. Members of royal families and stars of stage and screen are also devotees of Chan’s masterworks. Last May, he gained greater fame for his delicate and beautiful creations at Moscow World Fine Art Fair 2008. The event maintains a strict qualification system for selection. Only 20 of the top designers from around the world may participate. Wallace Chan of Hong Kong was the first Chinese jewelry designer invited to the Fair.

Chan was enveloped and nurtured within traditional Chinese culture from a very young age, and he drew much inspiration from traditional Chinese art. For example, his butterfly series was inspired by the philosophical tale of Zhuangzi and Butterfly in Dream. (Zhuangzi is representative of an ancient school of Chinese Taoism.) In 1980, Chan took on the techniques of intaglio and relief and soon mastered those skills. He then integrated his style of jewelry incision with techniques of intaglio and relief and created his own jewelry carving skill, the “Wallace Cut,” and his career entered an advanced and masterly phase.

Most of Chan’s work sell via auction, with a smaller portion belonging to personal collections. A top jewelry designer, Chan skillfully employs Oriental sensibilities and symbolic elements – a melding of qualities greatly valued by collectors.

In 2007 Chan began to integrate titanium frames into his designs, and his signature creations are now known the world over.