Time was when bonding between a mother and child, specifically a daughter, was a simple help with flowers on the back of the hair, bunched into a sanggul bun, not even with a keronsang (brooch), as in a little later years with better family income in the village. Whiffs of nostalgia of a bygone era. No jet-setting holidays or dining at fancy restaurants, as in today's lifestyle. Such is the impeccable charm of batik doyen Dato' Chuah Thean Teng's Mother-and-Child (Children) theme that it never fails to tug at the heart-strings, evoking more earthy and natural emotional memories. The child would learn to make do with little pleasures, and more meaningful too, and not grow up to be vain and avaricious. The soothing green tones of the clothes worn, both by the mother and the child, add to the warmth of the relationship, what with the delicate patterns in the sarong exuding some cultural faience. Notice how the chequered floorboard matches with the sarong of the little girl, who helps with the coiffuring of the seated Mama, her face partly hidden by her akimbo left hand. Dato' Chuah Thean Teng was hailed the ‘Father of Batik Painting' (Chinese Art in the 20th Century, 1959) by Professor Michael Sullivan, thus starting a world art genre, Batik Painting. In 1977, he was selected among the world's art elite in the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. The Penang State Government honoured him with a Dato' title in 1998 and accorded him Living Heritage status in 2005. He was given a Retrospective by the Penang State Art Gallery in 1994, and by the National Art Gallery in 1965 besides a momentous Tribute exhibition in 2008. His works are shown in his Yahong Art Museum in Batu Ferringhi, which include the iconic Two Of A Kind (1968) and Tell You A Secret (1987) and a self-portrait sculpture bust.