Scrolls of Culture

THE aha moment

There we were, Lynette, Ximin and I, on our hands and knees, squinting at a 17-foot/5.25 meter long black and white copy of an ancient Chinese scroll. It wasn’t just any scroll. It was the much-revered 12th century Song Dynasty Qingming Shanghe Tu handscroll that depicts daily life in the idyllic city of Bianjing.

Then, as I got closer, shock! There it was. The sesame pancake cart and its chef. Wait a minute, or rather, wait nine centuries! Hadn’t I devoured pancakes from that cart at least three or four times a week when I lived in Cheoh Thau Kong in the late 70’s and 80’s, as in 1970’s and 1980’s?  The only difference I could see was that it was not chef Mimi but a far distant male relative.

As I inched along, the 12th century handscroll art morphed into 21st century daily life on Penang Island, whence my inspiration to create Scrolls of Culture, a tribute to the community that was Cheoh Thau Kong and to its clear Chinese cultural legacy that transcends time and space.