Cindy Chao Makes Her Biggest Artistic Statement Yet

It seems every time we talk to Cindy Chao, we get the feeling this woman, who’s never wavered from her passion for creating works of art with jewels, was predestined to be where she is today.

Photography OSCAR CHIK
Styling ALEX LOONG
Hair SAM LO
Make-up IAN LI
Set Design VICTOR WONG
Set Assistants ERIC CHAN and BRIAN LOO

Cindy Chao has often credited her father and grandfather as being the two most influential people in her life, who shaped her to becoming who she is today, but it was her mother, she tells me, who pushed her into the direction of jewellery. 

“She really encouraged me to study jewellery design back then, because she was a jewellery lover,” Chao says. “Initially, I aspired to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps and become an architect, but my mother, who’d seen her father work intensely, gave me a push then to use my creative talents in a profession she felt was more feminine. So instead of stones and timber, I chose precious gemstones and metals.”

She laughs about the memory. “My mother was the one who regretted it the most in the end. She said, ‘Why did you choose the most expensive material to be an artist?’” Chao says, chuckling. “But I found beauty in gemstones. It’s part of nature and you can see life in them. I grew to love gemstones more and more, and I was able to bring my family background in architecture and sculpture, and this essence of nature into my creativity.”

So Chao didn’t become an architect like her grandfather or a sculptor like her father. She became a jewellery artist. But she realises the training she’d receive. d from both of them in her earlier years was equally applicable in the art of jewellery-making.

“My grandfather trained me to think outside the box and to always think three-dimensionally,” she says. “He’d show me his blueprints and ask me to point out the main entrance of a building, and he’d say, ‘What might be the main entrance for you could well be the side or back door from another’s perspective.’ He taught me that a holistic view always originates from the ability to view things with a three-dimensional mindset.”

As for her father, Chao remembers most of their father-and-daughter time spent together in the studio. “He’d give me a piece of clay from his big sculpture and assign a topic for me to sculpt. Although it was an attempt to keep me quiet while he worked, I became very good at imbuing life into sculptures, especially flowers and other natural forms,” says Chao. 

And so, through play, Chao trained. She saw the world in a structural and spatial way, and she held sculpting tools as deftly as we might wield a pair of chopsticks. “I didn’t get a Barbie doll until I was in junior school,” she says. 

And ironically, though her mother had thought jewellery making was a more feminine pursuit, in reality it was far from it. As Chao lugged a suitcase filled with wax sculptures around Europe and France, on her way to meet artisans and show them what she was capable of, she felt herself to be an unlikely young Asian woman in a sea of males. If, in her own words, it was “extremely challenging”, to others it seems an impossibility. The French are notoriously protective of their savoir-faire, and to allow an unknown outsider into their circle was almost sacrilegious. And the gemstone suppliers Chao dealt with were mostly very conservative and religions people who “aren’t allowed even to shake a woman’s hand”, she’s said. As the only female in the room, she had to be tougher than the rest of them. She’s experienced it all – doubt, disdain, rejection – but rather than let that get her down, she persisted. She knew she had something different to offer. 

“My grandfather once said to me that persistence and courage are two crucial elements to create an art piece. Life is infinite, our passage on Earth is finite, but our soul and legacy last forever. The art we create are the evidence of our existence,” Chao says. “I always keep his philosophy to heart and every time when I face challenges this serves as a reminder. Just be brave and persevere.”

Chao believes it was “the mind of an architect from my grandfather and the hands of a sculptor from my father, that became the components to impress even the proudest and the most experienced French craftsmen.” Slowly but surely, she built a rapport and credibility among the craftsmen in Europe. 

Those who once doubted her have become her closest allies. Chao’s creative process always begins with transforming her ideas into wax sculptures – just like her father taught her – and then together with her craftsmen, they experiment with innovative materials, including titanium, aluminium, maple wood, ebony, and, lately, ox horn, to produce works of jewellery art. Almost 20 years after she established her brand, Chao is now supported by her suppliers with the best and rarest gemstomes and, from a place of mutual trust, her craftsmen are as passionate and innovative as she is, working alongside her to redefine jewellery art. 

Chao established her eponymous brand CINDY CHAO The Art Jewel in 2004 with the opening of her first showroom in Taipei. And when the praise and the credentials began to roll in, she was more assured than ever about her vision of making jewellery art.

The western art critics began to call CINDY CHAO a brand that was “ushering in a new era of Nouveau Art Nouveau”, Chao recalls. She had collectors scattered in all four corners of the globe and successes that ranged from invitations to exhibit at the prestigious TEFAF to being inducted into museums. She’s proud of them all, but there were two moments in particular that were profoundly pivotal to her career.

The first was in 2010, when Chao’s second Annual Butterfly, the 2009 Royal Butterfly Brooch, was inducted into the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which marked an unprecedented milestone as it was the first time the museum collected a piece from a contemporary Asian designer. Chao remains immensely grateful for the curator’s words about the piece. “When he was asked about the rationale behind this induction, his response resonated deeply within me,” Chao says. “He articulated the museum’s responsibility to collect [those things that can best] represent the era for future generations. This imbued me with the sense of responsibility, fuelling my aspiration to create artworks that transcend temporal boundaries.”

Her contribution to the arts was further recognised when the French government bestowed upon her the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2021, an honour reserved only for a select few – only 200 are awarded the Chevalier medallion in a year, and Chao is the first Asian jeweller to have been awarded this distinction. She calls it “a great honour” – France was the birthplace of jewellery art, after all.

Next year marks the brand’s 20th anniversary, a milestone that really excites her. “My team and I aim to make substantial growth in the next decades to come, and to become one truly globalised brand with Asian heritage.”

Chao has talked about her life and career in its different stages before, how the first 10 to 15 years marked her beginning, and how she’s in the second phase of her journey now. It’s funny, because while many might have thought it was her accolades that would define the brand’s trajectory, Chao tells me it’s her son who dictates it. Chao, a single mother, was raising a young boy around the same time she established her brand. She sent him to boarding school when he was nine. “It was the right decision,” she affirms. “My son and I are so close today and he thanks me for the sacrifices I made to send him to the best boarding school.”

With two male role models in her life, Chao thinks there’s a certain toughness to her character already. But being a mother gave her the strength she never thought she had. “In the first stage of my career, I didn’t even think about giving up, because as a single mother, you’re the whole unit. I’m the mother and the father. If I fail, it means my son would fail too,” she says, emotion cracking through her voice. “I used to describe my life as if I was a horse with my eyes covered, so I didn’t look at others. I just went for it.

“Now looking back, I always want to thank my son, because he was my main drive. My only motivation was to make sure we survived and that I could give him the best education,” she continues. “So that’s why when he graduated, I was like, ‘OK, congratulations to you, but also congratulations to me too. Now I can create for creation’s sake.’”

Is her son primed to become Cindy Chao’s apprentice one day? “No,” Chao quickly interjects with a smile. “My son doesn’t even know how to draw a circle.” He studied business at Wharton, and it could be a good combination, she muses. But it really depends on whether he’s passionate about it.

But watching her son graduate and step into the real world had a great effect on Chao, who says she has become much braver and freer as an artist. I can’t imagine Cindy Chao ever compromising her art for the sake of commercial success, but what could a braver and freer Cindy Chao possibly mean?

She tells me her latest Annual Butterfly is her most technically challenging piece yet, created with advancements Chao has never yet used. Cindy Chao jewellery is exquisitely rare and exquisitely exclusive. The Black Label Masterpieces are already reserved for top clients only. The Annual Butterfly, even rarer so – the pieces aren’t something money, or even connections, can buy. They’re a part of Chao herself. She describes them as an embodiment of the ongoing metamorphosis of herself as an artist, and the advances in her techniques and craftsmanship. While they’re named annual butterflies, the last one she’s made came out in 2019. But the wait is over. This year, CINDY CHAO is releasing its 10th Annual Butterfly, the Amour Butterfly, in a public exhibition for the first time. The tour kicks off in Shanghai at the Long Museum West Bund, before stopping in Hong Kong and Taipei to showcase the brand’s superb craftsmanship. In Hong Kong, the Amour Butterfly will be shown at the Opera Gallery.

“This butterfly is special because it’s a custom order from a few years ago from a pair of collectors whom I have a strong relationship and friendship with,” Chao says. “I met them in 2007 when I was really a nobody at the time. I wasn’t famous. But the couple, a husband and wife, saw my talent and they were really supportive from the beginning. Over the years, they became more than just collectors to me, they became my mentors.”

At a dinner gathering five years ago, the collector pair brought up the fact that, after all these years, they still didn’t own an Annual Butterfly. Chao quickly sought to rectify that. “They gave me 100 percent of their trust. It’s a beautiful story of love and friendship. If you’re of Chinese descent, the butterfly is always associated with a love story.”

Becoming more established hasn’t made her work easier, just in case that’s what people are thinking. “I wouldn’t call it a challenge, but I’ll say it’s more responsibility,” says Chao after some thought. “When you’re not that well known, you need to prove yourself in many ways – your creativity, your know-how, everything. But I feel much lonelier now compared to before, because my problems are also bigger than before and I can’t find people to talk to.” 

She laughs heartily. It’s not unusual that powerful women often find being at the top a solitary place to be. But her team’s dedication reminds her of how far they’ve come, and how much support she has to accomplish her vision. “We had an internal workshop recently and I was very touched to find that a third of my team members have been with me since the beginning,” she says. “Which means they’ve been working with me for 19 years. Can you imagine? I would say I am a perfectionist, who is very strict at work but I’m also generous. I’m willing to teach and to give, and though it’s not an easy journey, I realise I have a lot of loyal people around me and that’s something I really want to celebrate.” 

And what does she want people to remember her for? “I don’t have an answer so far,” she ruminates. “I’m curious about what kind of impact Cindy Chao will have on this industry in the future. A century from now, how would people define what Cindy Chao is doing now?”

Pure jewellery art, I venture, with an East-meets-West sensibility that transcends borders, languages and cultures. Jewellery art that presents the finest European craftsmanship with an aesthetic that’s uniquely Cindy Chao, born from a love for architecture and sculpture. Jewellery art that we’ll see enshrined in museums, treasured by collectors. And worn? Only if you want to.

Something utterly extraordinary.