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Lee Kuan Yew's name-squiggling portrait goes viral

Xinhua, March 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

A portrait of Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, which was made by squiggling his name, has gone viral on social media as well-wishers pray for the country's founding father, whose condition "has worsened" .

Ong Yi Teck, a 20-year-old artist, spent nearly 15 hours writing the name of Lee about 18,000 times to make the stunning portrait.

He posted the portrait on Instagram on Friday, saying, "feel free to share this as we pray for Mr Lee's recovery and maybe ... this can go viral."

Ong's work has been shared by thousands of people a day later, including Ho Ching, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's wife and the CEO of Temasek Holdings as well.

Ong said he would like to show his appreciation for what the founding leader has done for Singapore.

Although his generation did not see the transformation that Singapore underwent, in his eyes, Lee is like a legend, an iconic figure that Singaporeans will always remember.

Despite the attention and praise for his artwork, Ong said he does not intend to sell the portrait or draw more portraits of Lee.

He admitted that putting pen to paper for the A2-sized portrait was far from easy, describing painstaking writing of Lee's name for 15 hours as a "nightmare." Endi