A viewer takes a photo of one of Zao Wou-Ki's artworks on in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region HKSAR. Photo: VCG Zao Wou-Ki, a renowned French painter of Chinese descent, is celebrated worldwide for his abstract art. For a long time, my understanding of Zao Wou-Ki had remained limited to this until I arrived in Locarno, Switzerland. There, I found myself moved by the enduring guardianship and affection people still have for him eight decades on, in this distant foreign land.