1946
July 8: Mimi Chen Ting is born in Shanghai, China to Souching Loo and Wei Foo Chen during a time of intense political turbulence and transition. Mimi is raised alongside four half brothers (Robert, David, Peter) and sister (Irene) from her father’s first family and two brothers (Percy and Chris) in what she considered “old feudalistic China” in a compound with a shared courtyard.
Of her early childhood, Ting recalled:
“I remember coloured lanterns, the man who popped rice for us on the street, waiting at the gate for Uncle to bring sweets, and riding in the horse carriage—or perhaps it was a bicycle carriage—in the rain, with the rubber cover down....”
(Left to right) Mimi, her mother, and brothers Chris and Percy, c.1949. Courtesy of Andrew Ting.
Souching Loo and Wei Foo Chen (mother and father), c.1945. Courtesy of Andrew Ting.
c. 1949
Ting’s father finds success working in banking for the Song Brothers. Ting’s family moves to an apartment in Hong Kong by the South China Sea. As a child, Ting spends time on the apartment balcony,experiencing a great “sense of space.”
Ting attends Maryknoll Convent School and receives a “Catholic upbringing.” Uses her allowance to purchase paper at the corner store for 30 cents. Her drawings appear in the South China Morning Post. The nuns at Maryknoll Convent School leverage Mimi’s artistic proficiency for the classroom:
“Since first grade in Hong Kong, I had been asked (told) by the nuns to make feast-day cards and Christmas decorations. Perhaps they were the first to realize I had a talent for art (which I would just call an insatiable longing to make visible).”
Ting studies ballet, yet this early formative experience in dance is cut short by her mother over concerns about becoming “too muscular.” Ting’s grandmother and father take the artist to Buddhist temples and Chinese opera performances, respectively, shaping Ting’s early encounters with color, calligraphy, music, and theater. Regarding the Beijing Opera, Ting notes, “it was the color of the costumes...the dramatic movements of these, that I think I was drawn to.”