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Hai Shuet Yeung, 73, came to the region 40-years-ago from southern China, where he worked as a chemistry teacher.

Like many new arrivals he moved into the catering trade, running a Chinese restaurant in the town centre.

He had a love of art from boyhood and began to paint in earnest six-years ago after an illness.

The artist Hai Shuet Yeung, MBE

Mr Yeung’s subject matter encompasses everything from landscapes to animals, as well as more abstract work using his β€œcrumpled paper” technique.

He is also a poet and incorporates his verses in calligraphy form into some of his artwork. His work is in a variety of collections around the world, including the British Museum.

He holds the world record for the longest artwork in the world, a piece entitled Culture 5000. The work is a tribute to the history of civilisation, starting in China five millennia ago. It is a continual piece of canvas measuring 201.5 meters.

A section of the Culture 5000 painting

It features over 5000 koi carp, all in separate poses and each one individually coloured. The sheer size of the piece forced Mr Yeung to develop his own unique painting style, as he explained: β€œIt is a very difficult job for me, very challenging for me. Everybody knows that watercolour, with the water and colour running round, it is hard to control them. But I wanted complete control. That is a different technique. So I tried to test and test and find out what is going on. And finally I got my own technique”

The technique drew on Mr Yeung’s chemistry skills to mix in special substances in the water to help bond the paint to the canvas.

In 2008 he was awarded an MBE for services to art and the community. He said he was proud to pick up the award from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. He sees the award as recognition of his attempt to build a bridge between the two cultures through his art: β€œWestern watercolour, oil painting and Chinese art; both, they've got a lot of space to develop in. But I have been considering how about theses two different kinds of culture; two different art ideas; technical, material, maybe become a combination. Mix it up. So I have done it. Oil painting, water colour it β€˜s all mixed up now.”