In this etching made of a scene of Sin Sze Si Ya Temple, Ching Min Ly chooses to showcase in fine detail the interior architecture and design of the temple. The confident, precise and yet natural handling of the medium very much impressed the judges. Careful, repeated etched lines and marks aptly bring out the complex, dense features of the temple carvings, yet a lighter touch gives airy volume and softness to the silk lanterns. The people in the scene blend into the textures of the temple – a worshipper standing before the altar, caretakers carrying out duties like preparing incense. The strongest character is the guardian lion on our left in the foreground, animated by the lively treatment of its features. We stand behind it tentatively, with a sense of awe, as broad shafts of light in red and orange brighten the interior spaces from the outside, creating gradient and depth, “symbolising enlightenment, or spiritual illumination”. We are clearly standing in a special place.

Sin Sze Si Ya Temple is the oldest Taoist temple in Kuala Lumpur, not only of cultural and religious import but also playing a role in the country’s political history. Built by Yap Ah Loy for two deities he believed guided him in the Selangor Civil War, during the first decade of the 20th century the temple’s property entrusted rights were transferred from Kapitan to a committee organised by the Chinese community, whose chairmen and members came to include key figures such as Chan Show Lin and Cheong Yoke Choy.

Even as we stand in the shadows of history, we notice details like people wearing facemasks, a high-backed plastic chair or an open cardboard box, that remind us that we are in the present, and in the everyday, in a continuing story lit by an unchanging source.