ART student Felysia Chew Shin Yin, 21, was adjudged the winner with her entry, ‘Mochang The Monyet’, in the Batu Lancang mascot art competition which was organised by the Batu Lancang service centre.
She received a certificate and the top prize of RM2,000 from Batu Lancang assemblyman Ong Ah Tiong at his service centre in Taman Hijau, Green Lane, today.
Second place went to another art student Khoo Yan Huai, with his entry ‘Nasi Lemak Boy’ which earned him a certificate and the prize money of RM1,000.
In third place was Teoh View Shean, whose mascot, ‘Beast of Batu Lancang’, won him RM500 prize money and a certificate.
“I’m surprised with my win because I rarely take part in competition,” said Felysia, who is majoring in illustration art at One Academy Penang.
“The hardest part was to come out with the idea of the mascot. For that, I took four to five days but the actual drawing work took about two days.
“First of all, I read up the history of Batu Lancang in my research and found out that it was famous for bean curd and bean sprout. Also, Batu Lancang previously was an agricultural area with aplenty coconut trees.
“So, I felt a monkey is a suitable mascot for it. I decided to choose dusky leaf monkey which is not found all over Penang and also because of its evolution.
“I named it ‘Mochang’ – Mo for monyet and chang for Batu Lanchang (or Batu Lancang).”
She drew different poses of the monkey – for instance one with a traffic baton and a whistle, another with a long reach garbage picker, and another ready to serve with a plate of kuih. Conspicuously seen in all the three drawings was that the moneky has a tail resembling a bean sprout.
At the prize-giving ceremony, Felysia was accompanied by her parents, Chew Eng Eam and Ooi Hong Choo.
Yan Huai, 21, was represented by his parents, Khoo Cheang Jin and Koay Phaik Ai, at the ceremony today as he is now studying industrial design at the National Taipei University of Technology in Taipei.
His sister, Yan Yu, 23, also made the family proud as she was one of the top 10 finalists selected.
Ong said a mascot would be chosen to represent Batu Lancang following the prize-giving ceremony of the art competition.
“Now that the competition winners have been selected, we will decide on the mascot.
“We received a total of 25 entries, not just only from Penang but also from states like Johor, Perak, Selangor and Kedah,” Ong told reporters at his service centre today.
He added that the competition started on Oct 31 last year but the two-month deadline was extended by another two months because of numerous requests and also due to the implementation movement control order (MCO).
The remaining seven finalists, according to Ong, would receive a certificate and a token of appreciation in the form of vouchers worth RM100 each.
A three-member jury panel, consisting of Penang State Art Gallery chairman Lee Khai, Penang Water Colour Society vice-president Ch’ng Kiah Kiean and artist cum graphic designer Goh Hun Meng, shortlisted 10 finalists before selecting the top three winners.
“We’re quite happy with the high standard of the top three winners. When we did the selection, we looked for creativity and the localness. Localness is very important and very relevant to the competition,” said Lee Khai, who is also the vice-president of D’Home Mental Health Association.
Story by K.H. Ong
