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Fay Chong was born in Canton, China in 1912 and moved to Seattle in 1920. Chong began studying art with Hannah Jones at Seattle's Broadway High School along with classmates George Tsutakawa and Morris Graves. He studied informally with Mark Tobey off and on from 1939 through the 1950s. He also studied traditional calligraphy techniques during return visits to China in 1929 and 1935. In 1933, Chong and his associates formed the Chinese Arts Club, which began as an informal co-op holding shows in Seattle's International District, and eventually exhibited as an arts collective at the New York Chinese School.

In 1938, during the Great Depression, Chong worked as an artist with the Federal Art Project of the Works Project Administration, with whom he worked on and off until 1942. He mainly created linocut prints of federal buildings and public places, and also became interested in watercolor at this time. He earned a B.A. from the University of Washington in 1968, while already well-known as a nationally exhibited WPA artist, and went on to earn an M.A. in arts education in 1971. He taught at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle Central College, Washington Senior High School, and Ingraham High School.

His painting fuses traditional Chinese painting style with American regionalism and other modern developments. He exhibited his art work in Philadelphia, Oakland, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Northwest Printmakers beginning in 1940. He was an artist with the Washington Art Project of the Works Project Administration. Chong was a member of the Chinese Art Club, Northwest Printmakers (served as treasurer and president), Northwest Watercolor Society (served as president), Puget Sound Group of Painters, and Washington Art Association. Chong was married to fellow artist Priscilla Hwang, and the paint exhibited together at the annual Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair for many years. Chong died of a stroke in 1973.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Chong