Thang Kiang How is himself a visual artist based in Singapore. His father was a journalist with the Chinese daily newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh He studied at a Chinese-medium school, but disliked English and mathematics and was often scolded by his teachers. He preferred playing after school with neighbourhood children and learned to speak Malay and Chinese from them. He also enjoyed drawing, and gained confidence when his secondary school paintings were accepted in art competitions. In 1968, Tang was awarded a diploma in youth and community works from the National Youth Leadership Institute. Two years later, in 1970, his first solo exhibition of drawings and paintings sponsored by the Singapore Art Society was staged at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Subsequently, he went to the United Kingdom to study, majoring in sculpture. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), with first class honours, from the School of Fine Art, Birmingham Polytechnic, in 1974. While abroad he changed his name to Da Wu, which is Mandarin for "big mist". Tang later returned to the UK and attended advanced courses at the Saint Martins School of Art. He received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 1985 from Goldsmiths' College, University of London, and a doctorate in 1988. Tang is married to an Englishwoman, Hazel McIntosh. They have a son, Ben Zai, known professionally as Zai Tang, who is a sound artist living in the UK. Career Early career and founding of The Artists Village Returning to Singapore in 1979 after completing his undergraduate studies, Tang engaged in performance art, works of art that are composed of actions performed by the artist at a certain place and time. The following year, he staged a work of installation art called Earthworks at the National Museum Art Gallery. This comprised two works, The Product of the Sun and Me and The Product of the Rain and Me, which were made up of dishes of earth, lumps of soil, and pieces of soiled and water-stained linen which he had hung in gullies at Ang Mo Kio, a construction site in the process of being turned into a public housing estate. Installation art uses sculptural materials, and sometimes other media such as sound, video and performance, to modify the way a particular space is experienced. In 1988, Tang founded The Artists Village, originally located at 61B Lorong Gambas in