Dao De Jing

This is a coloring book for all ages, children, teenagers, adults or seniors. It is the first of its kind where the ancient classic Dao De Jing is reproduced in Modern Chinese Calligraphy, using traditional Chinese brushes and ink written on rice paper. On the left pages are the most common texts reproduced in Fang Song typeface, with calligraphy artwork on the right. These pages allow for quick references. Dao De Jing is the most translated text written around 500 B.C. by the author commonly know as Lao Zi. It forms the philosophical text of Chinese thoughts apart from Confucianism.

Coloring for Seniors - Little India, explained

This is a very special colouring book - sketches of real places and real people of the EXOTIC Little India. It is also special to me as I worked on this book together with my younger son. Inside you will find our sketches, documenting the lives and activities of Little India. The sketches are rendered with lines and etching, creating a classical form with a modern twist and perspectives. You can get a copy here, http://www.lulu.com/shop/meng-foo-choo-and-shengyiyu-zhu/coloring-for-seniors-little-india/paperback/product-22813286.html

The cover is a sketch of the fish monger at the Tekka Market from a high angle. This market is special because the frantic activities can be viewed from the upper floor. Here we can see the spectacle of morning grocery and food marketing. This was a scene recreated from photographs of the 80s, where sign boards and refrigeration were not a common sight. Fishes were laid on top of the stall with some ice cubes spread above and underneath them. The floor was usually wet and soon it would become greasy as one walked along the aisles from one stall to another. Perhaps, one could recall doing grocery with one's mother or aunt, mesmerized by the price haggling, laughter, at times screamings, couples with the stench of raw fishes, pork and mutton.

Drawn with Platinum 3776 EF Nib.
The Gentleman. It is a common scene where old India gentleman’s dressing in their neatly ironed traditional daily wear, having his breakfast. The same beverage and the same Prata, nothing special, nothing bothers him. Every day is just another day. The same dressing, but he is not complaining about boredom as everyday is another repeat of the same. Perhaps he has seen through all the fancy and superficiality of live. Perhaps the ultimate reality lies in the flavour of ‘masala cha’ and the daily recurrence.

Coloring Places - Tiong Bahru

This coloring book is about real places and real people, it captures the Genius Loci of Tiong Bahru, a place that is constantly changing, reflecting the pulse of the young and spirit of the entrepreneur generation. The creative spirit and innovative approach to life is part of the everyday scene of Tiong Bahru. Though it is constantly moving, it has tried to hang on to its rich history. However, the sweeping economic forces and social changes would slowly shift and mould its current history. Its history is also influenced by global trend through the huge influx of both foreign and local creative class. The hip and trendy, late twenty to late thirty, artists, writers, designers, architects, lawyers, accountants, economists form the proactive residents of Tiong Bahru. Contrary to popular myth of authority's gentrification as the impetus for the changes in Tiong Bahru, causing rental to rise and displacing the existing residents, it is the economic forces and flow of foreigners vacating from the town center to the peripheral accelerating these changes, for some it is for the better, but for those being displaced it would seem that it is going down hill.
Since the sketches had been made, many places had changed, trees had fallen and landscape had been  re-moulded, people came and left, shops opened and shifted away. Many of the sketches become a figment of the memory of those yesterdays, for the new comers it is the history of the place, for those who lived through them, it is a certain loss and erasure of their existence. Perhaps through these sketches and colouring them, it would bring back fond memories.