Pan Shou (潘受), whose other name is Guoqu, Singapore's pre-eminent Chinese classical poet and calligrapher, was born in Fujian, China in 1911.

Pan Shou arrived in Singapore at the age of 19, and at that age, he had already received rigorous training in both the Chinese classics and the brush.

Over the years, he became a prolific artist as well as, an avid observer and critic of contemporary culture and society.

Pan Shou's artistic achievements are the result of decades of studying ancient Chinese scripts. He studied many calligraphic masterpieces of China, especially those on commemorative stone tablets. Throughout his life, Pan Shou studied and practised the archaic scripts of the Qin, Han and Wei dynasties.

Pan Shou often infused his calligraphic works with poetry. His poems would flow effortlessly through his brush onto rice paper, adding a further touch of originality to his works.

Upon this foundation, his own calligraphic style gradually evolved over the years and he became Singapore's most well-known and celebrated calligrapher.

Pan Shou was also an accomplished poet. Some 600 of his poems have been published in a four-volume collection called "Pavilion Beyond The Ocean" (1970) and in the "Pan Shou Nanyuan Poetry Collection" (1984). His latest offering "An Anthology of Poems", was launched shortly before his death.