Born to a literati family in Shanghai, China, Huang Yao (1914-1987) received his formative education from his father in classical literati traditions and calligraphy, particularly in the archaic scripts of oracle bone and bronze inscription. In the 1930s, he gained recognition as a talented cartoonist for creating the comic character “Niu Bi Zi” which was widely used as an educational resource in schools. Huang travelled to Southeast Asia after the end of World War II in 1945, and resided in different countries before settling permanently in Malaysia in 1956. He worked primarily as an art educator until his retirement in 1973. A prolific artist, he had held 23 solo and group exhibitions and six retrospective exhibitions.Like his paintings of children, the figures in Huang’s paintings of mythology and folk tales display a sense of playfulness that is not found in traditional renderings. Huang’s whimsical depiction of Zhuge Liang, the famed advisor to Liu Bei, a warlord in the classic novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, shows him at ease in Longzhong, his native village.
