Dr Fiona Wong E Chiong is a lecturer at the School of Arts, Sunway University. She is an illustrator and graphic designer turned educator in the art and design tertiary education arena for almost two decades. She is also a passionate young researcher and scholar in the local academia.

Equipped with professional training in illustration, graphic design, and the visual arts, coupled with her passion for the arts and crafts, she embarked on her research quest in search of more knowledge and a deeper understanding of the local cultural heritage. Particularly the arts and crafts in the country.

Cultural heritage, as Dr Wong understands it, is the inheritance of living traditions that encompass everything from history, practices, expressions, values, places to objects of a community or society from past to present, passed down from generation to generation.

UNESCO recognizes two types of cultural heritage: tangible and intangible. Tangible cultural heritage includes not only artefacts and objects, but also historic or archaeological sites, built structures, monuments, graves, and cultural landscapes.

Intangible cultural heritage on the other hand is referred as “the non-physical characteristics, practices, representations, expressions as well as knowledge and skills that identify and define a group or civilization” (UNESCO, 2010). This includes language, oral histories, beliefs and practices, rituals and ceremonies, customs and traditions, music and dance, art and crafts, among others.

Dr Wong’s first encounter with local cultural heritage was when she embarked on her postgraduate journey with a reputable conceptual artist and art critique, the late Redza Piyadasa. Under his tutelage, Dr Wong rediscovered the multiple facets and deeper extent of knowledge in Malaysian and Southeast Asian arts and culture she thought she already knew. She began researching on the late 19th- and early 20th-century Malayan Chinese shophouse façades in the country by travelling to every major town in Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia), capturing thousands of shophouse facade photographs in her fieldwork where sadly many of those have ceased to exist.

It was not until Dr Wong met Professor Dato’ Dr Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof, an internationally and locally renowned expert and scholar in Malay traditional theatre, who inspired her to embark on the highest degree of academic pursuit, and in research.

Dr Wong’s in-depth research on the Kelantan shadow puppets led to her realization that this form of traditional puppet-making craft was going extinct along with the Kelantan shadow play performance. From the visual appearance of the puppets to the characterisation and representation of the characters in the story, Dr Wong observed and analysed the different design styles of the puppets made by several reputable puppeteers (dalang) in Kelantan. The performance, as well as the craft, are regarded as intangible cultural heritage which are passed on—by way of oral tradition—from teacher to apprentice, from one generation to another.

Dr Wong also delves into the research on other traditional art forms such as batik, woodcarving, kite-making, among others. She is keen to explore the peripheral areas and topics relating to the arts and crafts of other cultures within the country, such as the Ramayana characters represented in the shadow puppets, as well as the Malaysian 24 Chinese festive drums. In addition, she researches on local cultural heritage particularly associated with her Chinese cultural roots as well as her birthplace, Sarawak (East Malaysia).

Being fascinated with the intricate motifs and symbolisms embedded within the indigenous Dayak tribes’ cultural beliefs and living traditions, Dr Wong has also presented papers on these topics at international conferences and produced research creations of illustration works portraying such themes using digital or mixed media in both local and international exhibitions.

Dr Wong believes in continuous scholarly research and incorporates her knowledge into her teachings to the younger generation to sustain and preserve local cultural heritage. She has been awarded two internal research grants by Sunway University for her research on the preservation of the Kelantan shadow play puppets and their craft, as well as cross-disciplinary collaboration with the sciences to use crafts as an alternative to plastics for a healthier living environment and an eco-conscious society.

Dr Fiona Wong E Chiong 
School of Arts
Email: @email

This article has been adapted from the School of Arts Press (SOAP), June 2021.