Illustrator Alice Mak
Illustrator Alice Mak is best known for creating an intellectually challenged Hong Kong piglet, McDull. He rose to public prominence in the 2001 award-winning animated movie, "My Life as McDull," set in Tai Kok Tsui and Sham Shui Po. She talks to Yvonne Young about creating an icon.
I grew up in a private building on the waterfront in Causeway Bay. My friends lived in public housing estates, so they had the chance to meet and go to the playground together. But my main activities were walking in Victoria Park with my family and shopping in Daimaru. We lived like visitors.
In those days no one really knew what an illustrator was. But my parents never questioned what I wanted to be.
My mum drove me to school. I didn't take the bus or trains like other kids. Because I had less chance to interact with other children, I learned to observe my surroundings. To entertain myself, I also did drawing, painting and read loads of comic books.
I went to a Catholic girls' school. Everything had to be done according to discipline. I was trained to do things without people noticing, such as talking without moving my lips and sleeping without dropping my head.
When I went to the Polytechnic University and met men, I was like, "Wow, this is a big world."
I fell in love right away.