Dato' Datuk (or its variant Dato or Datu) is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as a traditional title by Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The title of the wife of Datuk is Datin. Origin The oldes ...

Chuah Thean Teng (; 191425 November 2008), also known as Cai Tianding, was a Malaysian artist who is credited with the development of ''

batik Batik is an Indonesian technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to the whole cloth. This technique originated from the island of Java, Indonesia. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a ''ca ...

'' as a painting technique.

Early life and education

Chuah Thean Teng was born in 1914 in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

, China; Chuah's father traded sundries while his mother made shoes for women with

bound feet Foot binding, or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were kno ...

. The family emigrated to Penang,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

when Chuah was 14; Chuah returned to Fujian to pursue an education at the Xiamen Academy of Fine Arts, but was forced to return to Malaysia due to an illness. He subsequently experimented with various art media on his own under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Choo Ting, while working part-time as an art teacher.

Career

Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Chuah opened a ''

'' factory in Penang. While the venture quickly proved to be a failure, Chuah began experimenting with batik as an art form. According to T.K. Sabapathy, Chuah produced his first ''batik'' medium work entitled ''Malayan Life'' in 1941. Some of the themes which appeared in Chuah's work on include the human figure, landscapes and abstract compositions. Of these, the human figure has been the most significant. He held his first exhibition in 1955. He established the art and antique gallery Yahong Art Gallery in 1975. His artwork was featured on

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

greeting cards in 1989.

Final years

He was conferred the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) by the Penang State Government in 1998, which carried the title of Dato'. Chuah was awarded the Penang Heritage Trust's Living Heritage Award in 2005. He remained active in his final years and died on 25 November 2008 aged 96. Chuah is survived by three sons, all of whom are also artists: Siew Teng (born 1944), Seow Keng (born 1945), and Siew Kek (born 1946).

Legacy

Chuah Thean Teng is widely regarded as the "father of ''batik'' art" who developed ''batik'' as a means of painting; "his adaptation of the traditional ''batik'' medium into an accepted form of painting ... elevated the status of batik as a craft to an art medium." Chuah's self-portrait, which uses ''batik'' to depict a "very strong gaze showing his (Chuah's) sense of determination", was the first artwork to be registered in the National Collection of visual art at the

National Gallery Singapore ms, Galeri Kebangsaan Singapura ta, சிங்கப்பூர் தேசிய கலைக்கூடம் , logo = National_Gallery_Singapore_logo.svg , image = Interior_of_the_National_Gallery_Singapore.jpg , caption = Interior of ...

. In December 2022, a book "Exploring Southeast Asia with Chuah Thean Teng: Father of Batik Painting" illustrating Chuah's life and his contributions to Southeast Asian art was published.

Solo exhibitions

*1955, Arts Council, Penang *1959, Commonwealth Institute, London *1964, Pomeroy Galleries, San Francisco, California, USA *1965, Retrospective exhibition, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur *1967, Stichting Twents-Gelders Textielmuseum, Enschede, Holland *1972, The Gallery, Palm Springs, California, USA *1977, Churchill Art Gallery, Perth, Australia *1994, Retrospective exhibition, Penang State Art Gallery, Penang *2008, Retrospective exhibition, Balai Seni Lukis Negara, Kuala Lumpur (now the Balai Seni Visual Negara)

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chuah, Thean Teng 1914 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Malaysian artists Chinese emigrants to Malaysia Malaysian people of Hokkien descent Malaysian people of Chinese descent