In the summit of a parched hilly terrain, why is a horizontal band of red with underlying white garishly straddling the backdrop, what is it? A shorter band with white on top of the red lies on a lower elevation on the left. Your guess is as good as anybody’s but even pre-Paris, Chia Yu Chian was not one to keep to colour stereotypes. Nor can one identify with a degree of certainty the craggy heights, though unusual in shapes. The general colour palette was dull, and the feeling exuded raw, with an air of innocence. It was at a time, between 1957-1959, when Yu Chian traversed the length and breadth of Malaya and Singapore to paint landscapes, and unheralded villages. Much of the land was still undeveloped, and sparsely inhabited, with parched tree silhouettes. Human abodes, if any, were likely topped with attap or zinc, and any footpath discernible would be the oft-trodden ones. Chia Yu Chian made his mark in Paris, when he was given a French Government scholarship, to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris in February 1959-1962. In Paris, he had the distinction of his works being accepted for exhibitions 15 times, a few even with honorary mentions (Salon des Independents and the Societe des Artistes Francaise). Apart from solos in Paris (Galerie de Villiers and the Salon de Paris), he also exhibited in London (Britain) and Hanover (West Germany) in 1960. In Paris, he was commissioned to do a grand mural titled, Life In Malaysia for the Malaysian Embassy. Although he held a successful solo exhibition on his return, at the British Council in Penang, his major exhibitions were at the National Art Gallery (1989), Kuala Lumpur; the Memorial Exhibition at The Art Gallery, Penang (1997); the Chia Yu Chian In Nanyang exhibition (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, 2009), the grand exhibition held by the family, Chia Yu Chian Enlivened (Selangor-Federal Territory Chinese Assembly Hall, 2017); and Chia Yu Chian: Private Lives (Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, 2019).