Journey into the intoxicating world of art, poetry and song in this coming-of-age story inspired by the tumultuous lives and times of Singapore’s first-generation artists.
In the late 1930s, Chen Kang, an up-and-coming painter from Xiamen, moves to Shanghai - the Paris of the East - in a bid to advance his artistic career. While there, he meets a group of kindred spirits with whom he explores and questions the fundamentals of traditional Chinese painting and European Impressionism. Chen even falls in love with one of them: Liying, a painter of immeasurable talent.
But the Japanese invasion of Shanghai and the spread of World War II to Europe drive Chen and his friends out of China and into Southeast Asia, where they become part of the Chinese diaspora in the region known for its collective identity, Nanyang (South Seas). Before settling in Singapore, Chen and his friends make a pivotal trip to Bali where, inspired by the exoticism of the island, they develop a unique artistic style.