One – The Pioneer in Setting Local Art Personality

 

Xu Jie once mentioned in his editor’s words in the 10th issueof Ku Dao, “One does not need to go very far for ideas andinspirations in Nanyang because it has its own history, peopleand culture, and landscapes and sceneries. Instead, whatyou need to do is just stop and pick it up from wherever youare because they are everywhere you go. For instance, wesee coconut trees, spacious field, wooden houses and bullockcarts in our mind when we think about Nanyang. These arethe Nanyang personalities! Capture these and you producea good piece of work.” And that was how the idea of ‘beinglocal’ came about when it comes to arts and literature.

 

Unlike the artworks by the Chinese immigrants who firstcame to Nanyang during early 20th century, their paintingsremained very ‘Chinese’ - local personality was almostabsent; and the ones who graduated from Europe aftertheir further studies were very much into oil painting, andonly occasionally, some paintings of Chinese streets or Malayportraits were seen. Even Xu Bei Hong who came from Chinato Penang to support the fundraising activities was also atraditional Chinese ink painter. His works did not really playthe role in inspiring the artists in producing artwork with localessences or so called ‘local flavour’.

 

Prior to World War II, Yong Mun Sen, Lee Cheng Yong, Kuo JuPing and Chuah Thean Teng were among the ones who hadtouched people with their passion in painting and sharingthe energy of the equator. They made this tropical paradisevisible to many eyes and got them mesmerised by the beautyof paddy fields and beautiful beaches with coconut treesand stilt houses, something which was very different from thewater colour painting and Victorian-style oil painting by BritishColonial Government in 18th century. Not only had theseNanyang paintings projected unique personality, they alsodid a very good job in reflecting the living culture and vividlyexpressed the colourfulness of Nanyang.

 

In 1936, the committee of Yin Yin Art Circle was very openmindedwhen selecting artworks - they accepted paintingsfrom east and west, regardless traditional or modern, anddifferent styles of presentation for the exhibition. Hence thesaid exhibition showed various subjects and topics of artpieces, especially in oil painting, water colour painting andcarving. These works surprised many people with its truelocal personality - landscape and scenery painting havedisplayed Malay ‘Kampung’ (village) lifestyle – banana trees,coconut trees, wooden huts, white sandy beaches, as well astraditional stilt houses. The portraiture paintings demonstratedthe reflection of daily livings – Malays, Indians, people in publicplaces and crowds. Although the artists were not very strongin portraying such indigenous identity but what took placeduring the 30s were very encouraging – outdoor sketching,which had promoted the idea of ‘pick up what you see andpaint a story with your feelings’. These artists have successfullycarried out a very different kind of style in portraying the truepersonality of Nanyang artist and known as the forerunner.