“Art is not about the obvious. If in a painting there’s there’s a man and a woman, and everyone can see that, what value is there?” — William Teo

It was 10:45pm. I was in Malacca. Nee On was with me. We had just finished a wedding shoot. He wanted to sleep, but I was hungry. I had the car. So what did I do? I got us both to Jonker Street for the night street market.

There was much to see on the lively street. It was after all the first day of Hari Raya, and tourists were in full force in Malacca. I wanted food, but I also wanted to walk along the streets with my camera in my arms. Who knows what wonders my eyes might behold. I decided to eat as I walked along the street–trying out food offered for sale at different stalls. Once I satisfied my hunger, I turned my eyes to items on display: T-shirts and other clothing, antiques, cheap plastic toys, wood work, key chains, earrings, necklaces, bead work, old photographs, kitchenware and clay bowls, and the sort.

Then my eyes caught sight of silver-coloured trinkets spread across a table. A drum set, a grand piano, a saxophone, a spider, a dragon and a scorpion were placed in line behind dozens of keychains in various designs, shapes (of pigs, cows, crosses, hands and feet, dragonflies and many more) and sizes . Though they seem like common items, these were all bent into shape from steel wires. Such items I have seen before, but never really caught my fancy. But on this night, I thought of getting a handmade keychain for a friend I knew who has a keychain collection. So I asked William, the man behind the table, if he could custom make one for me.


William and his Art

William pulled out a wire, and with his pair of pliers he went to work. After a while, I asked to take a look. He showed his work-in-progress to me, and I had a difficult time making out the design. that was when he said, “Art is not about the obvious.” I let him ramble on, but I was thinking that it must be one of his well-rehearsed sales-pitch. I let it be and allowed him continue working on the keychain. After all I wasn’t going to ask him to redo an entirely new one. Plus, I sort of liked the idea he proposed: that true value comes from genuine appreciation; just the sort of meaningful message I’d convey to good friends of mine.


William at Work

But that had gotten us talking. He told me, “I am fifty-five, but my heart is twenty-nine, and that’s why I keep long hair.” He further stressed that, “old people don’t keep long hair.” Pretty soon, we were in a conversation about the pig farms in Malacca, long hair, the baba nyonya heritage, the Chinese, and a little story about his genealogy.

Here’s one of his many stories: William Teo is his name, but his surname should have been a Chong. He traced the history of how the surname got changed all the way back to his great-great-great-great-grandfather who died in 1824. Chong Piang is the name, and according to William, the grave still exists somewhere in Malacca. Coming from the Hakka (Kek) family, the man was a fearless fighter, and was involved in the fightings between the kongsi gelap Gheehin and Haisan. The surname change came about because of troubles of the fighting troubles. In a desperate attempt to escape murder he had run away as far as Terengganu and to protect himself and his family, the surname was changed to Teo. But the fighting past is history now. William is more an artist in the business of making wire-art; he has been selling his wares and art at different places for more than ten years in Malacca. These days, he’s on Jonker Street three times a week.

When his work was done, I gave him the agreed sum. I thought I got more than what I asked for: a keychain for a friend, and a pool of stories (even though I do not know how much of it was true). William was the most interesting person I saw in that one hour on that night on Jonker Street. I would have loved to stay on and talked some more, but I had to stop. Nee On was sitting on a walkway, chimping, and looking really sleepy and bored. Someone had to rescue him. That person was me.