Chong Fah Cheong

Chong Fah Cheong (simplified Chinese: 张华昌; traditional Chinese: 張華昌; pinyin: Zhāng Huá Chāng) is a Singaporean sculptor known for many public sculptures in Singapore. Though he worked in a variety of styles from abstract to figurative, his name is identified with a series of figurative sculptures depicting the life of people living and working along the Singapore River.

Chong was born to a large family of a general practitioner. Since the age of four, he loved to draw and sketch, and displayed talent in art. In school this talent continued to shine, but he was never good with his academic subjects. At the age of 14, the young Chong decided to quit school after completing Form 3 (Year 10) education at the St. Joseph's Institution, to join the Lasalle Brothers novitiate in Penang. Chong spent the next 7 years with the teaching order, leading a cloistered life and training to be a teacher. In 1967, he returned to secular life and began his career as a school teacher in Teluk Anson in Malaysia. A year later, he left his job to read Social Science at the University of Singapore.^[1]

In 2001 Chong was commissioned by Wing Tai Holdings to create An Overture, a 3,700 tonne jade sculpture to be installed at the courtyard of the House of Tan Yeok Nee. The $80,0000 commission work began on 14 February that year, and unveiled at the House on 13 July 2001 to complement the finishing of the restoration work on the 115-year-old national monument, which was completed in September 2000 at a cost of $12 million.^[2]

In 2014, Chong was awarded the Cultural Medallion.^[3]

Gallery

• 
  First Generation (2000)
  Size: various
  Medium: Bronze
  Collection: Fullerton Hotel
  Location: Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore
  
  The sculpture was created as part of a series of sculptures by various sculptors, in the Open Air Interpretative Centre project by the Singapore Tourism Board. Chong's sculpture was the first to be unveiled on 31 December 2000.^[4]
• 
  Another Day (The Coolies)
  (2000)
  Size: 150 x 160 x 130cm
  Medium: Bronze
  Collection: Private collection
  Location: West wing of the Singapore Art Museum
  
  Another Day immortalises the coolie - that archetype of the labourer or workman of the bygone days. In contrast to the coolies known historically, Chong's coolies are more those that still perform manual labour in warehouses and bumboats along the Singapore River in the 1970s and 1980s, and is today an extinct scene in urban Singapore. This sculpture was also created for the exhibition at the Singapore Tourism Board pavilion during the Expo 2000 held in Frankfurt, Germany.

Major exhibitions

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chong Fah Cheong.

• Official Website of Sculptor Chong Fah Cheong