Sook Ching

Wong Hoy Cheong has produced a wide range of artworks - paintings, video works and installation. Underlying all his works is a strong interest directed towards multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society, and drive to expose the narratives concealed by historical transitions and complex power relations.
This work shows the purge during the Japanese occupation of the Malay Peninsula from early 1942 to 1945 against Chinese residents who resisted Japanese. Borrowing some motifs from Picasso's "Guernica", he tries to reflect on the tragedy of war. The artist was born after the war, but his father was interned in a Japanese camp during the war. The fact that the Japanese rule as a result nourished the ethnic conflict between Malays and Chinese is a serious concern for the artist. Through this series of "Sook Ching (Purge)", he may be exploring his own way of life as a Chinese-Malaysian.