When I saw the big sculpture of a boy pointing, I glanced up and there was nothing interesting that the boy was pointing at up there. So, I wondered what the sculpture was all about?
As I walked into Raffles City Mall, I saw smaller versions of the boy sculpture, with different designs.
Then I read the write-up about Tian Tian Xiang Shang (which in Chinese means improving every single day) and was amazed that the creator Danny Yung had such creativity 40 years ago as Tian Tian Xiang Shang was created in 1970s.
Apparently, Danny Yung’s creative spark came elsewhere. I watched the interview of the creator Danny Yung about Tian Tian Xiang Shang and he spoke that the idea was originally initiated by Mao Zedong in the 1950s called graceful kids. It was to bring about reform and a better society in China. Danny Yung created a white sculpture of the child called Tian Tian in different sizes, and collaborated with other artists to allow them freedom in designing the sculpture.
To Danny Yung, the creator of Tian Tian Xiang Shang, creative means ‘action in participation’ and being engaged in more intelligent debate. While people worked on their design on Tian Tian, they reveal their concern, their thoughts, their feelings and personality.
I like the phrase ‘action in participation’, because sometimes, when we have ideas, we did not take action to fulfil our ideas. And sometimes as time passed by, the creative spark could died away, or being replaced by more urgent matters of life. This is my reason for writing this piece – to take action by sharing creative output at the very moment when the idea is still fresh.
