A personal sharing by our 6th-generation artisan

In 2021, Ng Tze Yong left his job as CEO of a charity to join his family business as its 6th-generation apprentice artisan, picking up an ancient craft from his 94-year-old grandmother and 73-year-old father.

Since 1840, his family has been hand-crafting wooden statues of Daoist and Buddhist deities using a traditional technique dating back to the early Qing Dynasty and which, in China, is listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. 

The challenge: Keep the shop going for another 100 years.

In this personal sharing and Q&A, Tze Yong will give a glimpse into the secrets of the ancient craft, which revolves around a splendidly-inclusive cast of deities comprising fearsome warlords, fair maidens, genial seniors, rebellious teenagers, drunken monks, serpents, tigers, buffaloes, and parrots.

He will describe the iconography used to differentiate the deities within the vast Daoist pantheon, via identifiers such as headwear, robes, armour, weapons, accessories, animal…