with labels, such as " contemporary/modern," " Chinese," and " woman" artist, while questioning them. Despite being remembered for introducing Western paintings to China, she was able to provide a new lens to how these women were seen through her paintings as not just objects but subjects. Life Early life and education Zhang Yuliang was born in 1895 in Jiangsu Province. After the death of her parents when she was 14, she was sold by her uncle to a brothel, where she was raised to become a prostitute. She attracted the attention of Pan Zanhua, a wealthy customs official, who bought her freedom. He married her as his second wife and helped with her education; she adopted his name as her surname. In one of her letters to her family members, she stated her will and signed as Pan-Zhang Yuliang (Chinese: 潘張玉良). This letter can be taken as a legal document, where she used Pan-Zhang Yuliang as a signature. Therefore, Pan-Zhang Yuliang is the name that she acknowledged and preferred. They moved to Shanghai, where she passed the exams to enter the Shanghai Art School in 1920, where she studied painting with Wang Jiyuan. Within the Shanghai Art School, Pan struggled to fit in with her peers. Due to her 'lowly' background, she was often ostracized and did not fit into the model of the 'modern Shanghai lady' — a young woman whose arts education added to their femininity and beauty. Pan was frequently described by her peers as warm-hearted and forthright, albeit if at times, blunt. Pan Yuliang is attributed as one of the first female graduates at Shanghai Art School. After her graduation, she went to Lyon and Paris for further study, sponsored by Pan Zanhua. She attended the Sino-French Institute of Lyon and Ecole National des Beaux Arts in Lyon, before finishing her studies at the Ecole National Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris. In 1925, she won the prestigious Rome Scholarship to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome in Italy. In Rome, she studied under Umberto Coromaldi. Career and later life In 1926, Pan Yuliang won the Gold Prize for her works at the Roman International Art Exhibition. In 1929, Liu Haisu invited her to teach at the Shanghai Art School and she returned to China. She had a solo exhibit in Shanghai, where she was honored as the first Chinese female artist