A scheduled visit to Cheah Thean Soong on Oct. 6th, 2008

An evening of hearty chat with Cheah and getting to see his impressive body of ink painitng works, I found Cheah had improved dramatically on his art of ink painting. He easily exuded congeniality by complementing me for taking several repeated shots of him, with the entire shooting moments revealing his exceptionally deep seated nature of friendliness, unauthoritative, and down to earth personality. More than that, his unassuming characteristic grand-fatherly and grand fatherly appearance is itself already possibly an attractive transcendence into an animated figure, however, never animatedly in real life. To prove my point, at one time when I met him in Singapore while we were walking lesiruely on the street, he was at first hesitantly but fished out by his relative who was also there on the street.

Always dedicated to his buddhistic practice, Cheah lives a life committing himself with many philantropist causes by helping many who are in dire needs.

Books and Tea, the inextricable ingredients of an ink painting artist, is an essential part of Cheah Thean Soon. As shown, he was attentive to his tea ceremony generously serving my intended visitation.

Cheah and wife had also invited me and friend for dinner. We had great time talking about many miscellaneous things of life.

Jeremy Tew

Shanghai upon the Sea

Oct. 11th, 2008