Li Hou, aka Xiao Sun, was born 1938 in Shanghai. Part of family heritage, Li studied, under his grandmother and father, the traditional Chinese art of painting and calligraphy. As a teenager, Li started to study Western oil paintings under the oil master Yan Wenliang. Soaking himself in classic studies and traditional Chinese art forms throughout the Cultural Revolution, Li emerged as a well-established ink wash painter and calligrapher in the 70s. Li started experimenting with abstract and expressionist methods while using traditional Chinese media of ink and rick paper. Though controversial at the time, he persisted with his explorations. In the mid-80s, Li was invited to travel abroad to Europe and the US as a visiting scholar, in first hand contact with the Western classics and the contemporary art for the first time, and his new work started to come of age. His art bridges east with west, past with present, is both deeply profound in nuances and thoroughly captivating in emotion. Li currently resides in the suburbs of Boston MA and travels to China freely. He enjoys jazz, writes calligraphy and paints, and continues the pursuit of his unique art form as a true free spirit.