Chang made an offer while attending one of the first art auctions in Beijing in 1994. (Photo provided to China Daily)
"But I never consider myself a great person. I'm just someone who runs a small business."
That was why he declined the idea of the book more than 10 years ago, when it was put forward by Kou Qin, one of the mainland's earliest auctioneers and general manger of the Guardian Art Center.
"It's not a book filled with laudatory expressions," Kou says.
"It's a collection of lively anecdotes and precious life lessons about genuine connoisseurship, built upon wisdom, hardships and credibility, which still matters a lot to the art world today."
The son of a well-off antiques store owner, Chang's recollections of his childhood and early years reflect how antique dealers in Shanghai profited from a booming market from the late 1920s to the 1930s.
The period saw an important transition: declining aristocrats and court officials of the overturned Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), who favored classical Chinese paintings and calligraphy, gradually lost their predominance in art collection to a growing group of wealthy bankers. Chang says the latter group preferred imperial ceramics crafted at official kilns to paintings.
The rising demand also generated a rise of influential antique dealers, several of whom became business acquaintances of Chang's family, such as Qiu Yanzhi.
The prosperous art market of Shanghai was then gradually replaced by Hong Kong, as many rich people moved there in the 1940s, and the city developed into the financial center of Asia. The chapters of Chang's life after arriving in Hong Kong are an inspirational story typical to many people arriving in Hong Kong forced to start their careers from scratch.
