The bamboo, from shoots to full-grown is revered among the Chinese for its durability, versatility and virtue. It has multiple uses like as writing and musical instruments, home utensils like ladles and table-mats, bows and arrows and weapons of death, and even food. Combined, it’s a tough cookie and not even frost could break it. Broken, like the stumps in this Cheah Thien Soong’s painting, it is un-thwarted for even in the parellel drawn to the brush-strokes, there is continuity. One should have the character and spirit of the bamboo, which may bend with strong winds but is still intact when it blows over. Cheah Thien Soong @ Cheah Mei is known for his Nanyang Style combination of the Chinese spirit and Western compositional aesthetics, with the inconspicuous padi-bird as his mascot. His mentors at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art (NAFA) in Singapore included Chen Wen Xi, Cheong Soo-pieng , Chen Chong Swee, Xi Xiang Tuo and Georgette Chen, and he was given the NAFA Alumni Association ‘Creative Award’ in 1989. He taught at the Malaysian Institute of Art from 1990 to 2002. In 2003, he famously painted on the Jingdezhen porcelainware. In 2015, he held a major solo, Cheah Thien Soong: Nanyang Ink Painting, at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. Cheah is also the chairman of the Negri Sembilan Art Society. Among notable overseas exhibitions was the China Art Fair in Guangzhou in 1993.