Study has shown that one in ten children with autism possesses a talent that’s in sharp contrast to their level of functioning, most are what’s known as “splinter savants”, which are people with a very specific skill, and few others are known as “talented savants” who have outstanding expertise such as in art, painting and more. However, about 100 savants in the world are classed as “prodigious savants”, who are so talented that they’re seen to be at prodigy or genius level.
I’m not even as talented as this dog 🙁
In Malaysia, we’ve got a few of those savants making waves nationally and internationally. So, in celebration of Autism Awareness month, here’s a few of amazing local talents!
1. Yap Hanzhen
18-year-old, Hanzhen has suffered through a childhood in which simple communications itself was difficult. His parents say he barely spoke through most of his teenage years. It was later on that they discovered he had a form of autism – after they struggled for a while to convince doctors and child psychologists that presumed his speech difficulties were due to ‘bad parenting’.
His parents then gave him a sketch book and pencil to help him associate drawings with words which inadvertently developed his passion for drawing. This eventually led to Hanzhen now touring the world to show of his amazing drawings!
Hanzhen admits that his “photographic memory” does help him sketch detailed drawings as he’s able to remember their extremely fine details for about up to 24 hours. His works have selected to be displayed at the Asia ParaArt Tokyo’s competition in Japan and he has even published his own works in a compilation book.
2. Ping Lian Yeak
Ping Lian is an award-winning 24-year-old artist who suffers from severe autism. His mother, Sarah Lee, has stated “I never feel he’s a burden… he gives a lot of meaning to our lives”. As said in the beginning, there are many types of savants and Ping Lian is one of the rare individuals that’s considered a “prodigious savant”.
His work has been exhibited in the US, UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, Singapore, and of course, Malaysia. When he was 10 years old, he painted the Ubudiah Mosque for about RM100,000 ($30,000 at that time) to an anonymous bidder at the Grand Auction of the RDA Charity Ball.
Ubudiah Mosque I, painted at age 10.
“He moves his brush from his palette to his canvas with seemingly little forethought or effort,” says Dr. Rosa Martinez, a New York autism specialist who heads up New York-based Strokes of Genius, which celebrates autistic artists. “He just touches the brush to the canvas and creates a masterpiece.”
When Ping Lian was younger, he was diagnosed with ADHD with autism characteristics which caused him to show no affection and would regularly kick and bite his parents and older sisters. His parents then consider the help of an ADHD Treatment Services and used a variety of techniques to reduce his disruptive behavior but after his father passed away, his mother found herself sole carer of 3 children. Before his father’s untimely death, his parents had decided to move back to Australia as they had lived there before, hence in 2006, Lee had faith that it was the right thing to do and moved to Sydney with her whole family.
Yes. Please do move somewhere where people will appreciate your art better.
In the beginning, Lee was only determined to improve her son’s fine motor skills and encouraged him to trace shapes. At first, he just traced letters of the alphabet over and over, building his imitation skills, but later on, Lee introduced him to thicker paper to challenge him. By the age of 8, was when he started copying art from an ice-cream wrapper and drawing independently. The rest is history.
Martinez had stated that Lee’s strength, support and love for her son has helped advanced her son’s development, adding that “It is a destiny created by lighting a fire. Sarah Lee lit that fire.”
3. Delwin Cheah
This 14-year-old kid has received recognition letters from Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth, and has even held his own exhibition!
“We want to share the recognition because we want to create awareness about autism and give support to parents of autistic children on how they can train and inspire their children,” said Erina Law, Delwin’s mother. Delwin was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at the age of 5 and also has an IQ of 144! He started drawing at the age of 3 and would spend many hours a day drawing.
Delwin’s art exhibition hung at Spaceat Collins, Melbourne 2015 under MATRADE
What’s frustrating was that his art teacher had called his parents after 30 minutes, saying that they couldn’t ‘handle’ him and called him the “worst artist” and that he “had no potential”.
It was in 2013 when Delwin first held his first solo art exhibition in Living Essenze in Penang and it was sponsored by One East Museum founder Ch’ng Huck Theng. He has also been listed in the Malaysia Book of Records as the youngest artist to hold a solo visual art exhibition with more than 60 artworks since April. What more, he is now a certified record holder of the World’s Youngest Savant Artist to have held a solo exhibition by the US-based Record Setter. Later in 2016, his artworks were used as a backdrop for Chef Nic, a popular cooking and travel show in China which was hosted by celebrity Nicholas Tse. More recently, he has designed T-shirts for the World Wide Fund for Nature – Malaysia in their Malayan Tiger campaign! Go Delwin!
