A visual representation of "His t-shirt" by Tammy Ho
YEUNG Sum Ching
Sha Tin Government Secondary School
In my artwork, I drew the scene of a father carrying his daughter on his back after buying coca-colas
while the writer's brother and sister were chasing each other and playing happily.
The relationship between the father and the writer is very close and it shows a comfortable rapport.
All the characters in my artwork have big smiley faces.
I chose this scene because I wanted to show the family love and the harmonious relationship between the father and his children.
The scene of daily shopping trip serves the purpose of featuring this simple and deep love.
Moreover, I used a lot of warm colours, e.g. red, in the painting to construct a genial vibe.
I chose a kind of old tuck shop to be my background
because it can evoke a familiar feeling and memory from my childhood.
All I want to express is the love and bond between the father and the children,
as well as the aging of the loving father.
His t-shirts
Medium-sized t-shirts on his dark body.
He’s totally Chinese - more so than me.
But in periods when he’s building bridges,
fixing window panes or drilling roads,
I think he’s from Africa.
Yellow skin is black in the sun.
Who said colours are God-given?
Medium-sized t-shirts he has aplenty.
Elated, in countries foreign, we do not forget
at home he’s suppressing his worried lips.
He wants nothing from us, but
we like the idea of giving. And so he’s
wearing t-shirts from London, Thailand,
Auckland, Japan, Finland, India,
Malaysia, Poland, Korea...
‘Where are you from, father?’ We are
teasers. Names of places bold
in English on his chest. He doesn’t know.
‘China,’ he answers. We laugh.
We laugh. Bad daughters.
Medium-sized t-shirts on top of Large
-sized ones in his drawers.
He once stood huge
in front of a snack bar,
buying us coca-colas,
and we cheered.
Tammy Ho
“His t-shirts” was published in hula hooping by Tammy Ho Lai-ming, p.5. Copyrights © 2015 by Chameleon Press.