Fiona Wong Lai-ching’s ceramic works push the boundaries between contemporary and traditional Chinese culture. Her keen interest in ancient Chinese art and mediums, such as white porcelain, led Wong to pursue an MFA at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1997.
Inspired by the material culture of clothing and ceremonial outfits of the ancient Han dynasty (2nd century B.C.E.–3rd century C.E.), and Song dynasty (10th–13th century C.E.), Wong’s earlier works seek to expand upon Chinese ceramic traditions by incorporating other creative methods such as tailoring and cobbling. For example, she utilised cobbling techniques to create Stretching Shoes (2002), a work exhibited at The 8th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition at the University of Hawaii Art Gallery (2003). This terracotta sculpture attempts to replicate traditional Chinese shoes, which were made for women with bound feet, referencing a Chinese cultural custom widely practised until the early twentieth century. Wong’s interest in traditional Chinese clothing is echoed in one of her best-known works, Blue Wings (2007). Acquired by the British Museum in 2018, this porcelain sculpture forms a cross-cultural connection by depicting a Western image of a cherubic angel with white porcelain in East Asian art tradition and referencing a ceremonial burial suit made from pieces of jade from the Han dynasty. A similar sculpture entitled Angelic Wings (2010s) was featured in the group exhibition NOT a Fashion Store! at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2021–2022.

From the 2010s onward, Wong has shifted her focus towards replicating natural and geographic forms through clay, and considers the visual interactions of light and sculpture. Her solo exhibition Splendorous World (Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong, 2014) features multiple back-lit porcelain sculptures that emulate the drawings of biological cells in natural science textbooks, and organic shapes found in nature such as tree leaves and beehives. She extends this influence of nature and light in her work in another solo exhibition Emerging Mountains (Lumenvisum, Hong Kong, 2014). This exhibition presents a series of amorphous clay objects that are reminiscent of the rigid hills and valleys of Hong Kong and the snowy mountains of China, creating a contemplative, three-dimensional view of Chinese landscapes. These sculptures invite the viewer to compare them to the line and brushwork found in historical Chinese landscape paintings.

Throughout her career, Wong has been invited to numerous artist residencies in Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States. In 2017, she was awarded “Artist of the Year (Visual Arts)” by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, as well as a commendation award by the Secretary of Home Affairs for her artistic achievements and promotion of the arts in Hong Kong. Wong is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva and has taught at the Hong Kong Art School since 2001. Since the early 1990s, Wong has participated in multiple group and solo exhibitions internationally. Her works have been collected by museums and private collections across the globe, including the British Museum, Hong Kong Museum of Art and the International Ceramic Museum, Faenza.