WONG 1996.181a-c

Wong Hoy Cheong probes the complex split of cultural allegiances of Straits Chinese identity and the Sino-Malay-British colonial influences that have shaped it. Using a medium that recalls the sepia-toned photographs of a family album, his ‘Migrants’ series presents images that resonate with references to migration and displacement, class and context, and prejudice and identity over generations past. In this work, Wong employs a visual device of ‘windows’ inserted into the work’s narrative to enable the simultaneously perception of different realities, depicting subjects as diverse as the Merdeka (Malaysian independence), tools for rubber tapping, a caged bird said to be a common feature in Indonesian communities in Malaysia, and the Beatles.