FREUDIAN apostles can tell a person's fears and fantasies by reading dreams. We may be able to tell something about Young Post student cartoonist Leung Yim-ting from her dream - drawing. The 16-year-old is the creator of Steamed Bun, a bilingual cartoon which will be featured in Young Post every Thursday from today. Bald like a bun, five-year-old Steamed Bun is the main character in the weekly comic strip. Steamed Bun's world is boundless. Sometimes you will find her coming out to talk to her creator in Yim-ting's drawings. Baldness is Steamed Bun's only concern. In one of the stories she becomes so desperate that she tries magic water on her head. The consequences? You must find out yourself. But baldness has never been a worry for Yim-ting. She actually has long, shiny black hair. Although the situation is not real, Steamed Bun's fear becomes real thanks to Yim-ting's pen. 'I simply try to imagine what my life would be like if I didn't have hair,' she said. In reality, what Yim-ting worries about most is her academic performance. 'I work hard, but a lot of times I'm not satisfied with the results,' she said. 'My schoolmates say I'm a perfectionist. Maybe I am. But I like setting targets and putting demands on myself. It pushes me to work harder.' The fifth former will be sitting the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) in May. She said studies are still her top priority. 'The irony is [that] ideas usually flood in when I am doing my revision.' When that happens, Yim-ting does sketches and leaves most of the details until her exams are over. She gets most of the story ideas for Steamed Bun from her own observations and her personal experiences. 'Steamed Bun has an older sister. So do I. Both sisters like to play jokes on their younger sisters - Steamed Bunand I. Yet deep down, they love us,' she said. Yim-ting notes, however, that Steamed Bun is not a perfect reflection of her. 'At most we are only 70 per cent alike. Steamed Bun is more like the inner me. We both have a lot of wacky ideas. But Steamed Bun will act them out,' she said. Steamed Bun has a cockroach for a pet; in real life, Yim-ting is not bold enough to even look at the creatures. 'I always dream of having a pet, but I can't. We live in a public estate where pets are not allowed,' she said. 'So I decided to experience having a pet through Steamed Bun. I drew her a pet cockroach.' To communicate with her characters, she goes into Steamed Bun's world herself occasionally with her own comic portrait. 'I poke fun at Steamed Bun and her friends in the cartoon. Some schoolmates saw my work. They laughed,' she said. In one episode, Steamed Bun and her pals poke fun at Yim-ting. 'I don't mind as long as my drawings cheer people up,' she said. Yim-ting sent her cartoons to Young Post on her own initiative. The original strips are in English. She wants to share her stories and improve her English. She has already done enough strips for a year of publication, but has yet to decide what will happen after that. If she has a chance, Yim-ting would prefer to study Form Six. 'It is difficult to make a living by drawing,' she said.
