Xiang Yun’s Son Is Slaying With His Artwork Even With "75 Per Cent Vision" In One Eye

On the old Caldecott campus, Yi Xi says, “As a kid I’d run around the campus, and my mum told me it’d be good if I could capture the memories with my drawings before the place is torn down. Drawing is my hobby. I don’t like to go to places, snap a photo and just zao (Hokkien for dash). I like to document things, and I never go anywhere without my sketchbook and watercolours.”

Yi Xi studied Animation and took drawing classes at NTU’s School of Arts, Design and Media, and now works at a Japanese gaming company. “I’m planning to leave soon to pursue acting. I won’t rule out being a full-time artist, but even my art friends say, ‘Aiyah, you can’t survive working in arts in Singapore’ (laughs). But I won’t stop drawing.” Yi Xi was also inspired by his dad Edmund, himself an avid painter. “I’m a homebody and don’t play sports, so my dad said, ‘Eh take a piece of paper and draw lah!’ He told me, ‘Why wait when you can create?’” So my book is also about creating something. My parents would love to hold a book that I’ve [authored]. When I was young, they used to reward me for doing well in exams by buying me Dragonball comics.”

Yi Xi shares, “I’d like to draw more portraits of the stars, but oftentimes they are filming and their facial expressions change too fast for me to catch. Instead, I’d sketch the cameraman and his equipment, ’cos he would station himself there all day and not move.”

After graduating from NTU, Yi Xi did a stint as his mum’s PA on the set of the Ch 8 drama Peace & Prosperity. “I’d run around the set, and [the cast like] Belinda Lee and Tracy Lee would ask if I could draw their portraits (laughs). But I draw more scenery than people now, though I want to up my game with a book of portraits! I wish I could pen down the smell on set too. Someone would order mapo tofu for dinner and the whole set would smell like mapo tofu.”

Despite having a keen eye for art, Yi Xi is actually partially blind in one eye. “I had a cornea ulcer in my left eye from a contact lenses infection when I was 14, and for years I had totally opaque vision in my left eye. As a result I [had to rely on] my right eye. I got a partial cornea transplant in army, and recovered 75 per cent of my vision. Now I can see patches of colours and not-so-defined lines out of that eye. When I close my good eye, everything looks like a Van Gogh painting (laughs) It's like having perpetual fog in your vision. I've gotten used to it. But back then it was pretty bad. I literally turned a blind eye to many things for a period of time. It was literally the dark times!"

“This is me having a teh c peng while sketching at Kampong Glam,” laughs Yi Xi. The oddest place he has stopped to sketch? “I once sat in the middle of a field in Paya Lebar to sketch the Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery. I wanted that particular angle. But most of the time I’m just somewhere balancing my sketchbook and trying to draw while standing.”

“So many people were pushing around me when I was sketching the temple,” Yi Xi laughs. When we ask him if he is worried that his parents’ fame will overshadow his achievements, Yi Xi ponders for a while. “[Their fame] is something I grew up with, and it’s inevitable that my parentage will be the main focus. I would be lying if I say there isn’t extra stress and expectations cus I’ve famous parents, but it’s still a blessing and I cherish that. My parents just gave me the standard advice to always work harder. I hope people will give me a chance to show something!”