64,000 chopsticks, one portrait of Jackie Chan

Malaysian artist Red Hong Yi pays tribute to the famed actor and martial artist with an unorthodox art installation

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Over 64,000 chopsticks were used for this image of Jackie Chan. Photo: Red Hong Yi

Published: 9:30pm, 16 Apr 2014Updated: 11:32am, 17 Apr 2014

Jackie Chan may have used chopsticks in the fighting scenes of his films The Fearless Hyena and The Karate Kid, but never before has the actor been the subject of chopstick art.

Malaysian artist and architect Hong Yi, who prefers the nickname “Red”, has given the martial artist the ultimate present for his 60th birthday – a massive portrait composed entirely of 64,000 disposable bamboo chopsticks.

“This art installation is a tribute to the life, art and cultural significance of Jackie Chan,” says Yi, who spent a month collecting the chopsticks in Zhejiang and Beijing.

“Jackie’s art director contacted me about three months ago to commission me to work on a...piece for Jackie Chan’s 60th birthday. I [decided to] use disposable…chopsticks to show that discarded materials can be reused and made into something meaningful and beautiful.”

Yi bound the chopsticks together and hung them from a steel frame. Photo: Red Hong Yi

Yi tied the chopsticks together into bundles and then hung them on a steel frame. From the installation’s side, only clusters of chopsticks can be seen, but when viewers look at the portrait from its front, Chan’s face becomes visible.

The chopstick installation was presented to Chan on the eve of the actor’s April 7 birthday celebration, an event that drew a wide assortment of celebrities including Taiwanese singer Jay Chou and Korean actress Kim Hee-sun.