TRAVELS IN TROPICAL ASIA
A Thousand Masters

For many autumns I followed the waves,
Fortunate enough to escape a watery grave
Today I have reached the ocean’s source –
Why should I take the boat and go on roaming?

— Flowers in the Mirror, Li Ruzhen (19th century)

“Why can’t I just paint in Terengganu!” Chang Fee Ming once exclaimed, referring to watercolour master Andrew Wyeth whom he admires and whose devotion to Maine is well known. After the haunting murmurs of the South China Sea breaking on the sand, it is the insatiable desire to learn that has, over and over again, enticed the Malaysian artist out of his beautiful native land. Otherwise, how could he, for two decades—and besides a yearly pilgrimage to Bali, find the time and the energy to visit a wide range of places, from the far reaches of the Himalayas to the plains of Indochina and all the way down to the Flores Sea? From there, he has steadily brought back paintings that are a journal of his vision of Asia. “I had to go and see these people,” said Fee Ming, “observe where they live, how they live and learn from them.”

Among the paintings presented there, a few early pieces are landscapes or still-life. The others are of people: people around rivers, people caught sleeping, beautifully clad squatting figures, pensive children, petty traders…In the end comes the mysterious vision of a dream. Somewhere along the way, the pictorial journal has become the record of a journey in art, a most fruitful transformation, fascinating to watch.