Ho Ho Ying

Ho Ho Ying , also known by his writer's moniker, Zi Mu , was a prominent Singaporean modern artist whose practice involved avant-garde Chinese calligraphy and abstract expressionist paintings. He co-founded the Modern Art Society in Singapore during the 1960s, and was an art critic that wrote essays calling for Singapore's art to grow in a new direction, arguing the case for abstraction over realism.

For his contributions to Singapore's visual arts, Ho was a recipient of the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2012.

Ho died on 31 October 2022 after a bout with COVID-19 left him in poor health. When he was born, his father had left the family for Kuala Lumpur to work as a cook for a British family. Much of his childhood years was spent with his mother, a housewife on the island, and at the outbreak of Second Sino-Japanese War Ho and his mother had escaped the invaders' capture and reunited with the elder Ho in Kuala Lumpur in 1941. He was 5 when he arrived in the city, only for the city to fall to the Japanese a year later.

Despite the war, Ho continued his education with the Chung Hwa Confucian Primary School . There, he learnt basic Chinese calligraphy and took art classes, copying drawings made by his teacher on the blackboard. In his free time, he would immerse himself at comic book stalls along Petaling Street , poring through Chinese wuxia comics and copying the comic book characters back home. He continued school at Chung Hwa Confucian High School until 1951, when his family relocated to Singapore.

He attended the Chinese High School, developing a strong interest in art under the influence of school teachers Liu Kang and Chen Wen Hsi.

For his contributions to Singapore's visual arts, Ho was a recipient of the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2012.

Personal life Ho caught COVID-19 early during the pandemic, undergoing mandatory quarantine at a facility at the Singapore Expo.