Year of Birth: 1965

Disability: Congenital deformity & weak limbs

Occupation: Interpreter, Subordinate Courts


Standing tall, her serene face beams hope to the struggling and stuttering plaintiff in the witness box. Calmly, May Fung gives the bench a succinct English translation of the plaintiff's appeal. Listening intently to the judge, she compresses the judge's long verdict, eloquently and sympathetically put in Mandarin, to ease the apprehension of the accused. At work or in art, this charming bilingual court interpreter, is a mouthpiece of hope, a message of peace.

I like the feel of brush strokes on paper - it is very soothing. Painting gives me a great sense of peace. With water colour, shades can be blended easily. There is a muted effect. I like the muted effect whenthe colours immerse into the paper. It's misty and translucent. I like paintngs of old shophouses, I especially like the nostalgic feeling. Whenever I paint, it helps to release my stress at work, it is a form of relaxation and balancing. Whilst expressing my feeling through paintings, the process makes me feel completeness, stressless and happiness. I like the inspiring and uplifting experience that art gives me, something that no wealth or material can substitute. Art is a life long interest. The very first thing that comes into my mind in the morning when I open my eyes is to indulge in painting. This may be interpreted that it has somehow become part of me."

May Fung's muted Watercolours of Ethnic Kitchen objects and Landscapes of 50s Singapore, like her scrupulously worded lyrics and pretty clay crafts, are poems of her inner tranquility and happiness. An absorbed and disciplined painter, May Fung could easily lose herself to Watercolour till the wee hours of the morning to relax and escape from the daily rigours of life. A sentimentalist, May Fung is as attached to her creations as to the nostalgic memories of an insouciant childhood spent on the five-foot ways of a shophouse. Whilst others may allow siestas to drag, May Fung, ignoring curious stares at her wiggling walk, would patiently shrink the monstrous spectacles of tar and mortar into charcoal sketches.