Cheong Weng Yat, more popularly known by his pen name, Zhang Hui, is a Chinese-language short story writer, essayist and artist. In his writings, he has captured for posterity events in Singapore history and highlighted important heritage issues, such as the local Chinese community’s loss of cultural identity. Additionally, through his work and advocacy, he has helped to revitalise the field of Singapore Chinese literature and raised its profile internationally. A longtime Chinese language and art teacher, Cheong was awarded the National Book Development Council’s Book Award for Chinese-language fiction and the SEA Write Award in 1992, the Chunlan Worldwide Short Novels Competition Award in 1994, conferred by a publishing house in China as well as the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize (Commendation Award) for Chinese fiction. Come Oct 2016, Zhang Hui will also be conferred an award by the Singapore Literature Society.

Cheong Weng Yat was born on 28 December 1942 in Selangor, Malaysia. As a young boy, he came to Singapore and settled with his family in a small village called Shuang Kou Ding located somewhere between Alexandra Road, Queenstown and Jalan Bukit Merah in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

In the village, he attended a small Chinese-language primary school where he was taught calligraphy, Tang poetry and literature. In his graduating year, he wrote a poem for his mother. His principal, after reading it, submitted it for publication in a youth journal. Cheong was greatly inspired and began to write in earnest.

Cheong subsequently attended River Valley High School and, after graduating in 1961, began teaching at Kallang Primary School. In 1963, he also began taking evening courses at the Teachers' Training College while teaching and he graduated two years later with art as his principal subject.

In 1968, he got married, began taking art lessons from acclaimed artist and art educator Cheong Soo Pieng, and joined Bukit Panjang Government High School as a teacher of Chinese language and art. While still teaching, he studied part-time at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and in 1988 graduated with a Diploma in the Teaching of Art. He continued teaching at Bukit Panjang Government High School until his retirement in 2007.

During this time, Cheong wrote and painted regularly. In the ‘70s, he was particularly active as an artist and exhibited his works twice, first in 1971 at the Dazhong Art Exhibition, and later from 1971 to 1974 at the National Day Celebrations Arts Exhibitions. However, although he practised his art-making regularly, working mainly in watercolour, it would be almost four decades later before Cheong would exhibit his artwork in a solo exhibition.

From the mid ‘70s, it was his writing that took centre stage. Modest and unassuming in person, Cheong was a man with something to say, and it was in writing that he found his best medium of expression. Inspired by his own students' school "diary" submissions, he began producing a torrent of Chinese language short stories, novellas and essays and illustrated them himself, often setting his stories against events in local history such as the students’ and workers' strikes of the ‘50s, colonial rule, and the Independence Movement.

His first work, a collection of short stories, entitled Goodbye, Teacher! (《再见, 老师!》) introduced readers to the topics that most concerned Cheong – identity, heritage and education. He followed this up with numerous collections of essays and articles, including, in 1980, A Horse's Grouses《马的牢骚》 and in 1982, That Flicker of Light 《那一豆灯光》, all of which garnered a widening readership.

In the early ‘80s, the Singapore government made English the medium of instruction in schools nationwide. Even in Chinese language schools such as Bukit Panjang Government High school where Cheong taught, all subjects previously taught in Chinese had to be taught in English. With this policy change, Cheong, who had been teaching art in his Mother Tongue, had to be "converted" to teach using English – a language that is unfamiliar to him. On top of that, he had to deal with the devaluation of his identity caused by what was felt to be an unjust education policy. This brought about a lull in his creative writing between 1984 and 1987.

When he started writing again in 1988, it was with an outpouring of frank emotions and renewed confidence. Central to his writing were issues arising from the new education policy, the tensions associated with them, as well as the displacement of Chinese-educated intellectuals in both the work and social arenas in Singapore. The latter was a highly sensitive issue during that era, one which was almost taboo to discuss openly.

His second collection of stories, Conference Confidential 45.45 《45.45会议机密》, comprising 23 short stories, was published in 1990. Simple in style and acerbic in tone, the collection comprised stories and characters gleaned from Cheong’s rich experience as a Chinese language and art teacher in Singapore "converted" to teach in English. Stories included that of Mu De, the 16-year-old boy who cracked under the pressure of being forced to study English, a language alien to him. They featured an English-speaking principal who cruelly belittled her Chinese-educated teachers in a staff meeting and announced her plan to force these "converted" teachers, who made up 45.45% of the teaching staff, to ask for a transfer by increasing their workload unreasonably. Conference Confidential 45.45 won critical acclaim from both Chinese- and English-language literary reviewers and readers in Singapore and China.

Having been a judge of local literary awards, Cheong was awarded the 1992 S.E.A. Write Award conferred by Thailand to top writers in ASEAN in recognition of their literary works. In the same year, his book Conference Confidential 45.45 won the Book Awards for Fiction (Chinese) Category conferred by the National Book Development Council of Singapore. And a third collection of short stories followed in 1992.

Another book entitled Ten Dream Series 《十梦录》, comprised 30 stories, most of which were works of magical realism that delved into the aspirations of the Chinese-educated in Singapore in the 1960s. It too helped Cheong win the 1994 Chunlan Worldwide Short Novels Competition Award, conferred by a publishing house in China.

Cheong followed his successes with more literary works while serving as Chief Editor of Literary Biannual (1988-1992), flagship publication of the Singapore Association of Writers, and Chief Editor and Illustrator of Mini-fiction Quarterly (1992-1995), another of the association’s publications. His work was also featured by reputable China-based publishing houses such as Lu Jiang Publishing House in literary critiques and anthologies, and his writings were translated into English and included in 1990’s Anthology of ASEAN Literature – The Fiction of Singapore and 2001’s Droplets.

By the early 2000s, Cheong had published 10 self-illustrated books of poetry, short stories, novellas and essays, and had written countless essays and short works of fiction for local Chinese newspapers, including the now-defunct Nanyang Siang Pau and, subsequently, Lianhe Zaobao.

Cheong finally retired from teaching in 2007. But far from retiring in leisure, he plunged into more activity. He immediately began giving talks on both creative and essay writing to audiences in established institutions in Singapore and Taiwan such as the Nanyang Technological University, and creating new works of fiction, many of which were published in Lianhe Zaobao.

He also delved into art once more. In 2010, he held his first exhibition, Watercolour Landscape Paintings Exhibition, at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce to raise funds for Singaporean ballerina Lee Meiyi to train with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. The following year, he followed up with a second solo exhibition, Watercolour Landscape Paintings Exhibition, at the National Library Board.

In 2012, Cheong was awarded the National Arts Council Arts Creation Fund (Literary Arts, Chinese Fiction). With that, he published, that very year, his first collection of self-illustrated short stories and essays in six years, Absurd ●Local Sentiments《荒谬●乡土情》.

In 2013, Cheong formed, with several local writers, the Society of Literature Writing. Its objectives include promoting cultural exchanges through literature, as well as local literature through the Internet. Helmed by Cheong as President, the society has in place a three-year programme to cultivate young writers in junior colleges and secondary schools.

He has also just published a new book of short stories. Entitled The Last Generation of Chinese Educated Students - Their Ensnarled Years (《末代华校生的网中岁月》-- 张挥短篇与微型小说选 ) it deals with the sense of displacement and injustice suffered by Chinese-educated intellectuals in the wake of government policy, and hints at the sense of loss and failure they continue to suffer.

Cheong has plans for new works of fiction and a possible exhibition of his artworks. When they materialise, they will undoubtedly be valuable additions to an important body of work that continues to enrich our local Chinese literature and our understanding of Singapore’s history and cultural heritage.