The Macao-raised and based artist Yang Sio Maan is a little embarrassed about how her creative journey got started, though the story is a sweet one. She enjoyed doodling as a child, but art wasn’t a passion. Nor was she inspired to follow in the footsteps of any prominent painter. Rather, her distinctive style emerged during her first relationship: Yang became an artist as she fell in love.
“My first serious drawings were inspired by moments I shared with my teenage boyfriend,” Yang laughs. “I recorded funny conversations or small arguments and turned them into little comics. That’s how it all started.” The two are no longer together, but Yang says she’ll always be grateful for his influence on her life.
Now in her 30s and an award-winning illustrator of children’s books, the co-owner of a café and the force behind Macao’s annual independent book fair, Bookery, Yang works from a cosy, creative space at her Avenida da Praia Grande home.
Storytelling comes naturally to Yang, through both words and pictures. Her office walls, practically papered in sketches, offer a glimpse into the worlds she conjures. Her characters exude a whimsical, almost surreal quality, brought to life through digital tools that mimic the delicate textures of pencil drawings and watercolours. The scenes she depicts provoke thought and recognition, for Yang has a knack for capturing life’s relatable minutiae with strikingly fresh eyes.
Finding Yang’s path
Despite Yang’s early creative learnings, she enrolled in the University of Macau (UM)’s business administration programme after graduating high school in 2011.
Unsurprisingly, the subjects weren’t for her. In Yang’s second year of study, she followed a friend into the English literature department – which introduced her to the realm of children’s literature. Yang realised that this was where her passion lay, though it took some time for her to figure out how to transform that passion into a career.
In her third year at UM, Yang began exploring different creative disciplines. She took a photography course during an exchange programme at the University of Rochester in New York, and extracurricular drawing classes in Macao. Finally, while scrolling through UM’s list of available courses, she stumbled into the field of illustration. It felt like fate, Yang recalls.
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“Everything suddenly made sense – it wasn’t art or design, but something in between and exactly what I wanted to do.”
Before graduating with a degree in English studies, Yang decided she wanted to pursue further studies in the UK – specifically in visual narration. But without a formal background in art, she knew it would be tricky. So, Yang turned to her creative writing professor, Kit Kelen, at UM for advice. Kelen, an award-winning poet originally from Australia, encouraged Yang to create a picture book for her senior thesis. The Winding Stair was Yang’s first attempt at writing and illustrating a full story.
“It was about an endless nightmare where a person is walking down a winding staircase, trading their soul for eternal youth and wealth,” she says. “My friends were surprised because they didn’t expect me to write something so dark. But looking back, it really reflected my storytelling style.”
After finishing her thesis, Yang applied to universities in the UK and was accepted at Farnham’s University for the Creative Arts (UCA). A scholarship from Macao’s Cultural Affairs Bureau helped her convince her parents that heading off overseas was a good idea, and set her on track for a career as an illustrator.
Her first year at UCA was challenging. Being in a new environment and studying illustration seriously for the first time was overwhelming. Drawing, which Yang had always thought of as fun, now felt tethered to hard work, assignments and grades. She struggled with self-doubt and admits that the stress of it all almost caused her to break down during her first semester. “If you look closely at my early drawings, you can see the hesitation in the lines,” she says.
By her second semester, Yang was – as she puts it – “letting go of perfection.” She began branching out with her art, channelling it into her first zine, Just a Pair. Zines, for the uninitiated, are non-commercial booklets typically self-published by artists. Just a Pair depicts a woman bombarded by commercials, quailing under the pressure to buy yet another pair of shoes. Yang’s lecturers at UCA praised it for its vivid storytelling.
Zines ended up becoming an important part of Yang’s artistic journey. She hadn’t even heard of the genre before arriving in the UK, but quickly fell in love with their license for experimental creativity. “Zines can be anything,” Yang explains. “They don’t follow strict rules and that freedom makes them so special.”
Back in Macao, growing through the pandemic
Yang returned to Macao in 2016 with a master of arts from UCA, and began working part-time jobs while trying to establish herself as a professional illustrator. She launched Yang Illustration via social media that year, building a platform from where she could share her work and promote herself as an artist. She also worked as an arts administrator at Art for All, a local non-profit art organisation, for two years. This role helped her connect with Macao’s artistic community and better understand the local scene.
In 2019, Yang travelled to the UK for the World Illustration Awards, and won the competition’s New Talent in Advertising category with a poster designed to promote an event in Macao’s Three Lamps district.
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While the award seemed auspicious, Covid-19 came hot on its heels – making jobs scarce and workshops impossible. But Yang didn’t let the pandemic get her down. Instead, she focused on passion projects like her debut published picture book, Mr. Matos Went to Buy Tomatoes. This was later shortlisted for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Ragazzi Award.
“It was such an honour,” she says of the recognition. “The Ragazzi Award isn’t just about illustrations, it recognises the whole book, from the story to the design. Knowing that my work stood out on an international stage was incredible.”
Yang also took on a massive book commission around that time, creating 75 illustrations for Wild Words, a coffee table book about nature-related words from around the world. The project made for an intense two months, she recalls. “I would wake up early, finish one illustration in the morning, two in the afternoon, and then work again after dinner. It was one of the most disciplined periods of my life.”
Beyond illustration, Yang used the pandemic to pursue new interests. She wanted to become a credible pastry chef, so interned in the kitchen of a local café. This adventure eventually led to her becoming a co-owner of her own eatery, Iat Iat, in the peninsula’s Rua do Pagode area. The café has become something of a creative playground for Yang; a venue where she hosts community events and pop-up performances.
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One of her most ambitious projects yet is Bookery, an annual book fair Yang co-founded during the pandemic. It celebrates books, art and independent publishing, while bringing artists from near and far together. The event has grown each year, despite challenges with funding and manpower. For Yang, Bookery is a way to inspire creativity in Macao and connect people through storytelling.
“Bookery motivates not just me, but also my friends, to create,” she says. “Every year, I tell them, ‘It’s time! Bookery is coming. Start preparing your work.’ It’s become a way to push ourselves and support each other as artists.”
Last November, at Bookery’s largest iteration yet, artists and authors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China gathered in a vibrant mash-up of art, culture and publishing. The event was too big to be held at Iat Iat, so it took place at a nearby yum cha venue instead. While Yang acknowledges there was some room for improvement, she says the event’s overall success made her and her team very proud.
Creative storytelling at the core
On top of her illustration commissions, helping run the café, and organising the book fair, Yang finds the time to teach at the Macao Polytechnic University. Her courses bear titles like, “Stories of Famous Paintings,” “Image and Narration,” and “Design Drawing.” Teaching enables Yang to focus her personal creativity on the projects she believes will be the most fulfilling. She says she thrives on the challenge of finding new ways to tell stories.
Reflecting on her trajectory to date, from doodles in throes of young love to serious international recognition for her work, Yang says she’s proud to be where she is now. The artist would never admit to having made it, however. “I’m still figuring things out,” she insists. “But I know one thing for sure, I’ll keep creating. It’s what I love most and what keeps me going.”
