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Unsung S'pore Icons: Retired hawker Y.L. Thien, 78, makes art out of fallen twigs
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Mr Thien has been making art on the ground near a carpark in Owen Road since 2020.
ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
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SINGAPORE - Take a walk in Pek Kio and, if you are lucky, you might spot an elderly man creating portraits out of fallen twigs on the ground.
All it takes is a gust of wind to undo his artistic arrangements, but Mr Y.L. Thien, 78, does not mind. "If the wind blows it away, I can still create another one," he says in Mandarin, bent over a work in progress - a portrait of Hongniang, a maidservant from a Tang-dynasty tale.
