I went to interview Mr. Yeung who runs a small household goods store in Sun Hing back street.  Like so many people in Cheung Chau what is seen from the front disguises the riches we find when we start to enquire deeper. “I am an ordinary man nothing special.  I can draw, no big deal, just others found it surprising that a shopkeeper can draw.”  His background reveals Cheung Chau when it was a manufacturing base when his father set up a pottery painting studio to which there were a few around at that time.  Originally the Yeung family was from the Chu Chow city of Guangdong Province and moved first to Shau Kei Wan and then to this island.  As a small boy he developed his interest in drawing and because of his father’s occupation he focused on the Gon Bi style of Chinese brush drawing.  Mr. Yeung has now been practising brush drawing for about 40 years and his interest is from the traditions of the Gon Bi artisan style to which bears a strong relation to the practice of porcelain painting.  However, back in the past he became more absorbed by the practice of Chinese painting but was confronted by one of the issues of Chinese painting which is you either go big or small.  He felt very humble about the subject of Chinese painting, so he focused on the small. 

He applies himself to painting from 9 to 11 pm everyday, his range of subjects are from figure and portraiture to landscape and horses and even micro brush drawings of ants, flies and mosquitoes.  Of his larger scrolls in which he can spend three months in completing the work paying attention to every detail.  Apart from brush drawing, Mr. Yeung in the last two years has developed his interest towards calligraphy which he said that in the beginning one starts with four-inch characters but then you either go bigger or smaller, because of his preference he went smaller so from three by three grid to nine characters.  Now he can write twenty-five characters within the grid. This called micro calligraphy. 

Mr. Yeung holds a humble attitude towards the arts.  He said “Many people are boastful, but when you step out of your door, you will find that 50% of the people are greater than you.  And when you walk down the street, you will find 80% greater than you.  Till you walk to the market, you may find that you are the remaining 10%.”

楊先生

「我很普通，沒什麼了不起! 」這是我邀請他接受對象的第一句回應。「我是會畫畫，沒什麼了不起，只是其他人看見一個雜貨店主也會畫畫而感到驚訝吧！」

楊先生什麼也會畫，他爸爸是個潮州人，從事陶繪畫工作。他就是兩年前剛開始研習書法。他指學書法一般由四寸字開始，然後越寫越大，或越寫越小。他選擇了後者。起初一個九宮格 (半寸)，他可以寫一個格寫四個，然後再變九個，如今他可以寫出二十五個。他指這藝術就是微書。

沒有任何老師，今天的藝術都是他就是自己邊看書，邊練習得來。畫筆都是從前留下來的，現在香港已不能買到。

「很多人都很自大，但其實只要踏出自己的門口，你會發現有50% 比你強，再走過這條街，比你強的人可能已有80%，再走到街巿，你可能就是餘下的 10% (其他90%的人都比你強!)」這就是謙卑的藝術。

Text credit: Gary Ng

Photo credit 1+2: Killie Burton

Photo credit 3: Judith Pernin