Sketch artist Richie Cheung was often seen in the streets of Hong Kong, travelling through the 18 districts and capturing the city’s spirit. Now in his retirement years, he has moved with his wife to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he continues to embrace life with his paintbrush.
From the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market in Hong Kong, to the Warorot Market in Chiang Mai, Mr. Cheung experienced the same hustle and bustle, yet with a different language and smell. For months on end, this was his favourite place to visit.
After coming to Thailand, Mr. Cheung often sat on a chair and drew for a long time, as he had done in the past. Visiting the small shops around Warorot Market, he talked to the shopkeepers, befriending them with his limited Thai.
Experiencing Chiang Mai’s Slower Pace of Life
Mr. Cheung and his wife applied for Thailand’s Non-Immigrant Retirement visa, which is valid for one year and can be renewed annually. This visa does not allow them to work, but does allow them to live in the country. They are among more and more Hongkongers who chose Thailand as an ideal place to reside. The local prices, climate, and living conditions are all easier to adapt to than in the UK.“Hong Kong is a big city with easy access to public transport, but it is more like a pressure cooker, with high pressure and living costs, which makes it a less comfortable place to live,” said Mr. Cheung.
“After I visited Chiang Mai, I felt that the climate there is actually good. The pressure is not so high, the cost of living is cheap, and the Thai people gave me a very peaceful feeling.”
While travelling in Thailand, Mr. Cheung and his wife would rush through the itinerary and visit attractions. After moving to Chiang Mai, they basically didn’t go to any of the popular attractions but lived in the city like locals to feel its warmth.
“Most of the time, we just walk down the hill, stroll the streets, explore, and eat something,” he said.
Mr. Cheung, who likes to look for good food, is impressed by the diversity of food in Chiang Mai: Not only is there Thai food, but also a lot of authentic foreign food.
Browsing Through Local Shops and Learning Thai
“Compared to Hong Kong, which is dominated by chain shops, it feels much better to shop in the small shops in Thailand, where you can get a better sense of local people’s traditional life.”
The only difficulty is the language, as Thai is the primary language in Thailand, and not everyone knows English or Chinese, so the couple go to Thai classes every weekend, which makes their lives fulfilling.
“There’s a pastor who has been living in Thailand with his wife for over 20 years. They’ve compiled a Cantonese teaching kit, which is fun, so we’ve all learned to pronounce Thai very quickly,” Richie said. “Now we have more than 60 Hongkongers learning Thai with him, and the weekly study sessions have become a gathering of Hongkongers.”
To learn Thai, one needs to memorise the 44 consonants, 32 vowels, and five tones. Writing Thai is like painting, and Mr. Cheung, who has a background in painting, very much enjoys it.
“We have people of all ages in the Thai class, the oldest being over 70 years old,” he said. “All of them are doing well. They are able to communicate in daily life, such as greeting, ordering, bargaining, and picking up the goods from couriers.”
‘Painting Brings the World Together’
In Hong Kong, Mr. Cheung was one of the most active sketch artists in “Wahayeah Sketch Group,” which exhibited many of his works.Having moved to Thailand, he hoped to continue the spirit of the group and organised a sketching group to make friends with artists.
“I made friends with people in the art circle, such as professors who teach pure art in the university and their students, artists they know well, Chinese and Thais who run museums, and so on,” he said.
“There are also some foreign city sketching groups, including British, American, Australian, Russian, and Ukrainian. The most interesting thing was that I saw Russians and Ukrainians sitting and chatting together, very peacefully. Art is really a bridge that can bring the world together.”
In October 2023, Mr. Cheung compiled 25 paintings from his one year in Thailand. Invited by a German lady who owns a gallery, he opened an exhibition, “The Rhythm of Day & Night,” to share his impression of Chiang Mai’s landscapes and humanism.
“We combined video and paintings to bring an immersive experience to the audience. For example, in the Warorot Market, which I like very much, there were a lot of sounds, such as those of cars, people, and hawkers. I recorded them and linked my paintings to these sounds, which made the whole thing complete.”
The Painter Created His Own Special Way of Painting
“I like to paint the overhead power lines in Chiang Mai,” he said. “My paintbrush is not ordinary, but made from card, and a tree branch that I picked up. The tree branch is very difficult to control, but the lines drawn with it are very lively, thick or thin, which is a new try for me.”Taking painting as a lifelong hobby, Mr. Cheung is determined to keep painting as long as he has the energy. He has been organising his paintings and hopes to publish a book to share his work with more people.
“I’m very grateful to be able to have an exhibition in Thailand, to have people who appreciate and support it, and to have a group of like-minded friends. The exhibition is also an opportunity to bring people together,” he said.
“This exhibition mainly focuses on Thai scenes. In the future, I would also like to put scenes with similar themes in Hong Kong together with paintings made in Thailand. In fact, there are many similarities between Chiang Mai and Hong Kong, all of which can be done to increase the connection between Hongkongers and Thailand.”
