Born in 1931 in China, Chua Mia Tee migrated to Singapore in 1937. A graduate from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1957, Chua is a highly regarded master of portrait painting. Chua has painted portraitures of prominent public figures, including presidents and prime ministers of Singapore. Besides portraitures, Chua also paints nationalistic and local scenes of Singapore, which serve as historical documentations of the nation’s changing landscape.Chua captures a disappearing scene featuring a bird singing contest, a popular leisure activity which was commonly seen in public housing estates in Singapore. Here, bird owners and contest enthusiasts, almost exclusively male, sit under a pergola from which many bamboo bird cages hang.
