Tan Swie Hian is a famous artist in Singapore. Born in Indonesia, he migrated to Singapore when he was very young. He studied in the then Nanyang University and obtained a Bachelor Degree in Modern Languages and Literature.

Swie Hian worked as the Press Liaison Officer at the French Embassy for many years. He is a poet as well as literary writer. He has produced many poems and short stories, and his literary works had won him various awards. He has also translated many famous literatures from English, French and Malay languages into Chinese.

A talented person and master of all arts, Swie Hian is a painter, poet, philosopher, author, translator, critic and cartograveur. In Fine Arts, his seal carving, calligraphy, oil paintings, paper caving, sketch portrait and ink painting are highly regarded. His creative artworks had also won him many awards in Singapore as well as overseas. Some of his awards are:

• French Knighthood of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) 1979
  
• Gold Medal of the French Artists Salon in Paris 1985
  
• Singapore Cultural Medallion 1987
  
• Jewel of the Art Award by the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society, Singapore 1990
  
• Singapore Book Development Council Books Award

In 1993, Chen Dianyi, a businessman, established the Tan Swie Hian Arts Museum to display Swie Hian's artistic creations in various mediums and literature works. This is one of the few museums in the world dedicated to living artists. In 2000, he was invited by the Weekly Newspaper for Primary School students "Damuzhi" to design their prizes. He had also written many articles on arts around the world for the newspaper.

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