Biography

 

My mother shared her stories with me for a large part of my life while she was still with my siblings and I. Because she lived to 101, this story only focuses on her art, something she was passionately engaged in, even towards her twilight years. It was an achievement she was particularly proud of, given the circumstances of her time. 

 

WONG Tong Loy, the only daughter of Chinese immigrants from the Guangdong province of China, was born in 1921 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya as it was called then. 

 

Growing up in Malaysia, Tong Loy was a lively child, feisty and very clever.

 

After finishing her Chinese High school, she enrolled at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore to study oil painting. The year was 1940. In 1941, the Japanese occupation of Singapore abruptly ended her studies, a sad milestone in her life that culminated in a dramatic change of circumstances.

 

She returned to Kuala Lumpur to be with her parents. It was not safe to be a pretty, single female during the Japanese occupation, and soon she got married. Dedicating her life to raising five children, the years during and after the war were particularly tumultuous and challenging.

 

In 1975, my parents left Malaysia to reside in Australia for the sake of the children. These years were very trying and when my father passed away unexpectedly in 1981, my mother was suddenly left feeling lost, vulnerable and afraid of the unknown future.

Not having adequate English skills nor employment, her shortcomings also included deafness due to an illness she suffered in early childhood. Her hearing loss deteriorated further following the bombing raids in Singapore in 1941 while she was still at the Nanyang Academy. 

 

Without my father to support her and provide for her, as well as undertaking all the administrative tasks for the household, she was on her own now.

 

Undeterred, my mother rose to the occasion and started painting to try to make a living. Not having put brush to paper since she left Art school except on the odd occasion when she had some free time, she had her first exhibition in Darwin, at The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in July 1982. It was an astonishing success for a first exhibition. She was forever grateful to the gallery which had given her this opportunity to pursue her true calling. She continued to have her paintings exhibited throughout Australia until 2009.

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Formative years at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore 1940/41

 

While at the Academy, she had the opportunity to meet Mr Xu Beihong, the renowned artist from China celebrated for his horse paintings. He was guest lecturer there at the time and also held solo exhibitions to raise funds for the war relief effort.

 

A painting in oils by my mother had caught the eye of Mr Xu. My mother had not actually advanced to using oils yet. However, her curiosity and penchant to challenge herself made her ask a senior colleague to lend her his easel and oil paints so she could paint a display of tropical fruit that was left in the classroom after school hours. Mum sneaked in when no one was in the classroom and painted the spread of fruit, including the soft spiny skinned rambutans laid out on fabric.

 

When Mr Xu noticed the finished work, he asked who the student was. A few days later when the Principal told her someone wanted to meet her, she was both surprised and curious; she had no idea why and who he was.

 

Mr Xu invited mum to lunch and intimated that he had expected to see a male student when she turned up. Tong Loy, according to my mother,  was a boy's name, but that was the name her parents had given her, perhaps because they had wished for a son. 

Anyway, Mr Xu said "never mind", and began to advise her to pursue traditional Chinese painting. However, if she still really preferred oils, she could always do it later, he said. He then gifted her a small memento and told her she could learn Chinese painting by "copying" the great Chinese masters. 

 

Towards her latter years, my mother told me that she had always admired and loved the great paintings of the Renaissance masters, like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. She wished to paint like them when she enrolled at the Nanyang Academy, and to have Mr Xu discourage her from pursuing Western oil painting, she did not know what to say, and remained silent out of politeness. She thanked him for his advice, leaving his words in the far, distant recesses of her mind. 

 

Forty years later, Mr Xu's advice resonated deeply with my mother. At this critical juncture in her life without my father to support her, she had to believe and have faith in her artistic ability, and focus on what she could do best to become an independent and resourceful individual in her own right. And that would be through her art.

 

At the age of 60, her journey had truly begun. She started practising and honing her skills in traditional Chinese painting and developed her own personal style. Having the gift of capturing the essence, beauty and grace of her subjects, her paintings engaged the viewer at a very personal level, instilling a sense of peace and quiet stillness.