In 1955 Hsiao Chin went to study in Spain, becoming the first of the Ton-Fan Group to go overseas. He wrote back to Taiwan describing the new trends in art that he was witness to, and the other painters, after poring over the contents of his densely written airmail letters, began putting some of those ideas into practice.
畫會成立那一年，八大響馬的蕭勤首先出國，每每以蠅頭小字在航空郵簡上寫滿他在西班牙學習觀察到的藝術新風潮，其他的七個兄弟就從文字來體會和實驗。