The portrait of an Indian rubber tapper, among other migrant workers, is rendered in large-format in charcoal, to put these lowly workers as unsung heroes in the nation’s development. Hoy Cheong received a double Masters – Fine Art (Painting) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1986), and Education from the Harvard Univeristy, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1984). He graduated Bachelor of Arts magna cum laud at the Brandeis University, United States, in 1982. He was the winner of the Australian Cultural Award in 1992. He had had artist’s residences in Gasworks, London (2002), Canberra Institute of Art, Canberra, Australia (1992), and was visiting fellow to the Goldsmith College (1999), and visiting tutor to Central St Martin’s in London (1988). He was given a retrospective by the Eslite Gallery in Taiwan. His Re: Looking (2002-2003) installation was shown in the Venice Biennale in 2003.