When Fee Ming portrays the people of Terengganu, however, he pays them the compliment of not idealizing them. “I paint what I feel,” says Fee Ming. The appeal of his characters is due to their own dignity, their sense of fun, and their courage-like the young girl in Her First Fasting Day, 1996. It is also due to a growing nostalgia for the trappings of the simple way of life-tobacco rolled in a palm leaf, gold bracelets of a lady at the market.

The impact of Fee Ming’s warm “reportage” in reinforced by the fact that the technical quality of each painting remains as important as the “feel” of the subject, Emphasis is given to the graphic composition-to triangles in Break Upriver, 1997, or to an original angle, from below or from above, like the point of view of things as seen by a child, or a cat. There is also a growing unity in colour, - sepias, greens and reds, and a magnification of textures-hair, the warp of a cloth and sand.

In Fee Ming’s “tropical watercolours”, everywhere pervades that special quality where silver shimmers on a brown leg or on a cengal plank and light created by the sun when it pierces through a clearing in a cloudy sky.

Today, as an artist, Fee Ming has come to terms with his feelings of loss when things he loves must vanish. He purposely makes Terengganu part of his artistic journey – a journey that obviously brings him happiness. In his latest paintings of Terengganu, he composes and creates scenes that express his vision of his homeland. More and more he uses colours that are shaprly defines, yet do not clash, with vividly contrasting reds and blues (Year 2000…So What?, 1998-99), bold applications of diagonals and crossing lines (A Last Puff, 1999) or circles within circles as in “Cukup Timbang”, 1997. A most recent piece, The Choice, 1999, a diptych is even quite funny.

Once, in Terengganu, Fee Ming was asked, “When you travel, are you looking for your roots?’ He quickly answered, “No, my roots are here!” Then, after a moment, he added, “Yes, in a way, what I have been looking for in foreign countries was what I loved best in Terengganu. Laos was beautiful and alien. In Myanmar, I discovered a monastic mysticism. In Bali, I found art alive. But sometimes a foreign country gives too much-too much to explore and understand. Inspiration must come from inside of us as well as from what we see outside. Whatever Terengganu will be in future, I will always try to paint her because she is part of me.”