A Malaysian painter has been given the honour of capturing the images of heritage buildings in China.
CHONG Hon Fatt has scored a rare double for twice being commissioned to paint two different historical fortress sites in China that were separately accorded Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) heritage status.
Lucky or destined, the 68-year-old Malaysian artist, known for his paintings of heritage buildings in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, worked on capturing the the diao lou, or castle-like, towers in Kaiping and Taishan in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, in 2006-2007, and then the tolou, or rammed earth, buildings in Yongding in Fukien this year.
The second project is ongoing and will culminate in a grand art exhibition at the 2nd World Yongding Fellowship scheduled in Ipoh later this year.
Chong explains that, “The buildings are two distinctly different structures although they are built like a fortification, and both have their own quaintness, thus the Unesco heritage status (which they received in June 2007 and July 2008, respectively).
“They are not only marvels in terms of architecture but also the history related to the communities and the time behind them,” says the artist, who paints alfresco and completes his work on-site when there is strong natural light.
He sees the diao lou and tolou buildings as a “rich men-poor men” contrast. The diao lou incorporate Western influences with their use of bricks and cement and were funded by those who made their fortunes in North America, especially during the California Gold Rush in the 19th century, and other overseas destinations.
Tolou, made mainly from rammed earth, which is fire-resistant and ecologically friendly, is a Chinese Hakka innovation. Although the ramparts are round, sometimes a rectangle, the more than 1m (4 feet) thick earthen walls are slightly sloped downwards like an inverted funnel and are said to be earthquake proof.
“Unlike the diao lou, which were built in urban centres, the tolou are relatively inaccessible for now, as they were built in the countrysides in the early days, but with their great tourism potential because of the Unesco listing, development has increased tremendously,” Chong says.
“I have seen diao lou towers reaching up to 10 storeys high but the tolou where I was billeted during the 1st World Yongding Fellowship Conference last November was only four storeys high – although it does not lose out in terms of its grand bulwark and multiple uses,” says Chong, a Teochew Hakka by origin.
At the time, he had only done the Hongkeng tolou, and even then, they were not all covered. There are others in Chuxi, Gaobei, Yanxing and Zhengfei.
“I will need to go back to Yongding four or five more times, like what I did for the diao lou paintings, but only when there is good sunshine, which is expected to be in late spring, around March,” he says, adding ruefully that, “It rained, mostly, throughout my last stay in Yongding.”
Rain to Chong, a reputed sun chaser, is like kryptonite to Superman, and so he had to scuttle his painting plans due to the long rainy spell.
However, he did manage to do four paintings, including one viewed from the corridor outside his room of the four-tiered rotunda, with the tiers of spherical corridors inside festooned with red lanterns.
“In the early days, the inner compound was used to grow vegetables, rear chickens and pigs. It was like a mini township, with a well and often a water source nearby. The community inside each tolou was said to be able to survive for a year without having to replenish food supplies.”
Chong was invited by the Yongding chapter in Penang, which was impressed with his work on the diao lou project, to do a similar documentation and when the local Yongding authorities came to know about it, they gave it their full support.
Yongding is populated by Hakkas, who originally made their exodus from north to western Fukien a millennium ago, and has become a bastion of Hakka culture and networking. Its world fellowship conferences are held in rotation in countries where there are sizeable Hakka communities.
It’s no mean feat for Chong to get the official approval of local authorities (information and tourism departments) to paint their heritage sites, especially in a country teeming with great artistic talents.
“I set only one condition, that there be no rain, or that it (the visit) was not during the rainy season,” he says.
Yet Chong did not seek out to paint diao lou architecture. It was by chance – or perhaps it was fated.
“Some time in 2006, I was on the way to Macau (to paint the eclectic architecture there). But a Kaiping official who saw a painting of mine of the Petronas Twin Towers got in touch with me through a mutual friend when I stopped over in Guangdong.
“I was virtually ‘hijacked’ and sidetracked to go see the ruins of diao lou in Kaiping! I immediately fell in love with what I saw but the clincher was the incredibly bright sunlight then,” he recalls.
Five trips and a year later, Chong showed some 80 paintings of the diao lou of Kaiping and neighbouring Taishan at a grand exhibition at the Pan Tower International Hotel in Kaiping. The event was marked by the publication of a book and documentaries shown by local TV stations. A special report will also be featured soon on China’s satellite TV channel, CCTV.
The diao lou and tolou come in different sizes and styles but have one common feature: security. They were built like fortresses with the tolou seemingly impregnable while the open tops of the diao lou were stocked with muskets to shoot marauders or with large rocks to throw down on their targets. In peacetime, the chattris-like pavilions on top were also used as tea kiosks. (Chattris are dome-shaped elements of Indian architecture.)
The ground floor of the tolou was usually used as kitchen and dining space, the first floor was a granary storage space and the third and upper floors used for accommodation.
Both the diao lou and tolou have window openings only on the upper floors.
Interestingly, the application of the rammed-earth layers is not dissimilar to Chong’s way of piling on, or tiling, layer after layer of oil impastos, wet on wet, onto the canvases. The only difference is his instinctive texturing and the tonal quality, which often invest the works with a romantic allure with a coquettish glow of light interspersed with a darker “antique” finish, especially with his trademark titanium-white colour hierarchy.
Chong is as fastidious with his materials as he is with the way he paints. He lugs his own easel wherever he goes, and has a special stock of paints, preferring more malleable materials that he can sculpt any way he pleases and often with extravagant outlay even if he is going to waste them.
“I find that my creative mood is better when I have more than enough paint readily on the palette rather than trying to economise,” he says.
Shy and humble by nature, he is animated when talking about his painting and the magical play of sunlight on his subjects.
When he is doing outdoor painting, bedecked with a cap on the head and long-sleeved pullover, he is often rapt at work like one possessed, oblivious to the curious onlookers that invariably gather around him in urban areas.
A protégé of the versatile art pioneer Lee Cheng Yong (1913-1974), Chong has been painting more feverishly and passionately since he retired as a bank clerk.
“This painting obsession would not have been possible without a supportive wife and family, but like all things, you’ll need to know how to create a balance,” he advises.
Just as he does in his paintings.
By OOI KOK CHUEN
Source: thestar.com.my
