This illustration is inspired by an article in the New York Times, " At Kopitiam, the Art of Malaysian Snacking on the Lower East Side ". The article uses a narrative way to tell the warm-hearted story of how the main character, Kyo Pang, a female chef who has brought the traditional culture of Malaysia Kopitiam back into her and people’s lives.
Kyo Pang's story has touched me. I'm impressed by her persistence to keep heritage kopitiam's culture alive, precedent efforts and origin favor always being forgotten in the current transformation of the high tech era. We should continue to promote the heritage and origins alive as Malaysia unique culture. So, this illustration is to illustrate Kyo Pang's life in vitalizing loving kopitiam's culture and how her warmful action brings a lot of joy and memories to the neighborhood.
The main visual of this illustration is a "special" traditional Kopitiam opened by Kyo Pang by combining the building with the savory and dessert elements I take from the articles. The story starts from a grandpa who is buying the materials and walks into the Kopitiam. He is the person that inspired Kyo Pang to open the Kopitiam again. Follow by the two blocks of the building. The right block is the savory area and the left side is the traditional sweet area to show Kyo Pang learning how to cook sweet from her mother and savory from her father.
For the whole visual, we can see there was a dazzling light spread on to Kopitiam which is to show the culture of Kopitiam has been ignited. Also, the action of Kyo Pang watering the “egg tree” is to show the message that she is the person who is vitalizing loving kopitiam's culture by planting the traditional culture to make it grow from time to time. Different people walk around and sit in the kopitiam to show the reality of Kopitiam. They have been drawn with pleasant expressions to show that Kyo Pang and her family are living the Kopitiam’s culture which brightens their lives.
