Hsiao Chin was 14 when he moved there with his parents in 1949. At 21, armed with a fine arts degree, he headed for Barcelona to take up a fellowship from the Spanish Government.

Strength in numbers appealed to this founder-member of Ton Fan, the first group of Chinese painters to promote Chinese abstract art as a movement. In Spain, Hsiao was quickly drawn to the influential Informalism group and in 1961, he co-founded the Punto International Art Movement in Milan.

Now 57 and an Italian citizen, Hsiao can look back on 25 years abroad - several of them spent in Paris, London and New York - and major awards including the Capo d'Orlando Prize, a Gold Medal at the Norwegian International Print Biennale and a First Achievement Award (1989) from Taiwan's Li Chun-sen Foundation of Contemporary Painting.

A prolific artist committed to Taoist ideals, Hsiao Chin has held more than 60 one-man shows and participated in more than 100 group shows. His work is represented in major museums and collections around the world.

THERE'S only today and tomorrow left to see The Art of Shi Qi, presented by the Wan Fung Art Gallery at the Exhibition Gallery, High Block, City Hall.

It should be worth the effort. A member of the standing committee of the Beijing Artists' Association, this 53-year-old native of Fujian Province is regarded as one of China's major contemporary talents.

Like Hsiao, Shi Qi revels in colour. Unlike Hsiao, his work also has a strong figurative element, usually expressed in his ideal of feminine beauty.

There are other major differences. Born in poverty, Shi was tending cattle and cutting firewood by the age of six, and at 18, practically penniless, he travelled to Xiamen to sit for an art school entrance exam.

He passed and so began a career that flowered in the 80s when he made the transition from traditional realism to a vigorous abstract form employing inks and pigments.

His work doesn't come easy. ''When I paint,'' Shi Qi confesses, ''I lose my appetite and can't sleep well at night.

''I still say to myself it would be much better if I had one more week . . . This is why I feel my skin has been peeled off whenever I complete a picture.'' TEACHER or painter? It seems to have been a toss up for Victor Lai Ming-hoi, but this talented local artist didn't take any chances.

By 1990, after a decade of study, Lai had his teaching certificate from Hongkong's Sir Robert Black College, plus a BA (Hons) in Education from Liverpool University. Also, two diplomas in painting from the extramural department of the Chinese Universityand an MA from London's Royal College of Art.

Painting has clearly won. At 31, this super-achiever is a veteran of numerous exhibitions, is represented in public and private collections from London to Japan, and since 1986 has collected 10 awards including a John Minton Scholarship and a Fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council.

His latest show, from Thursday till January 21 at Gallery 7, Glenealy, indicates that Victor Lai is far from done. It is titled Dream About Tomorrow.

LIU She likes his women natural, serene and Rubinesque. Similarly, their surroundings, inspired by rural areas in southern China, are a sensualist's delight, particularly for the jaded city dweller.

''A kind of harmony between the illusory man and nature . . . an ideal that has been forgotten by modern society,'' Liu writes in a foreword to his Gongbi Paintings showing from Friday till January 16 at the City Gallery, Sincere Insurance Building, 4 Hennessy Road.

It is his first one-man show outside China, though he is far from unknown. Born in Hubei Province and trained at the Nanjing Art College, Liu She has acquired an international following, with works represented in collections including those of the Hongkong Museum of Art and America's Columbus Art Museum.

Gongbi (traditional Chinese realistic painting characterised by fine brushwork and detail) is his preferred style and he works in colour and ink on paper or silk.

KUO Chuan-chiu paints by night. Partly because she's a photo-journalist by day. The other reason is that only as night falls does this artist find the inspiration to create her dense, mysterious works.

It is a painstaking process. Usually, Kuo takes months to complete a painting - sometimes longer, as in the case of Night Watcher which remained in her studio for over a year - but then she is adept at the art of contemplation.

A Zen devotee, Kuo spent two years doing menial work in a monastery. The humbling experience enriched her spiritual life and fed her imagination.

In her exhibition Nocturne, showing at the Hanart T.Z. Gallery, Old Bank of China Building, from Saturday till January 30, Kuo's visions impress as ''natural landscapes of the mind,'' says Hanart owner Chang Tsong-zung.

''Even when strangeness intrudes . . . they are inviting and wonderful, an open vista in which to roam and explore.'' FRINGE '93, from January 15 to February 6, has attracted more than 60 painters, potters, photographers and mixed media artists who will be showing their work on both sides of the harbour.

Among those kicking off the annual festival, which has grown increasingly sophisticated and challenging, are oil painter Ho Wing Yu, who was born in India, raised in China and moved to Hongkong in 1983; Shieh Ka Ho who will present oils and acrylics and asks: ''Is there anything I can trust besides money and art?''; landscapist and portrait artist Helga Lanzendorfer who was born in Germany and grew up in Australia, and photographer Paul Lau - who has been inspired by remote parts of China.

Talents of the future can be seen from January 16 to 20 at the Arts Centre's Pao Galleries, venue for the 5th English Schools Foundation Exhibition.

More than 2,000 exhibits, ranging from paintings and prints to sculpture and computer-generated art, will be displayed.