Hon Chew Hee is one of Hawaii's best known print artists. Hee was born on Maui but spent his childhood in China, where he received his early training in Chinese brush-work. This was followed by studies at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco where he was awarded the school's highest honor, the Virgil Williams Scholarship. After graduation he returned to China where he taught arts and crafts in the Poon-sa Junior High School in Kwangtung Province. In 1933 Hee came to Hawaii and worked as an artist, teacher, and also during the war at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. He showed frequently at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and also in New York. He was represented in shows at the Library of Congress, Society of American Etchers, Seattle Art Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the De Young Museum in San Francisco as well as in China and Australia. A drawing of his won first prize in the Association of Honolulu Artists 1941 annual and his engraving entitled "Our Neighbor" won the John Poole Memorial Purchase Prize in the Print Makers' show of 1945.