I first met Cheng Chit at 5OSME Plus!, the origami convention following the 5OSME conference (the Fifth International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics and Education), back in 2010 in Singapore. I was very much an origami novice then and wasn’t too interested in the conference side (bad decision, since the abstracts showed me what I missed). Cheng Chit was teaching his bi-color White Tiger model, and he was looking for the classroom. I just happened to know where the room was and gave him directions. I didn’t attend his class though, because it was too advanced for me at the time. From what I heard afterward, Cheng Chit was instrumental in securing the venue for the conference. And as most conference and convention organizers know, having a venue is absolutely step one in making it happen.
The second time we met was at 6OSME in Tokyo, four years later, in 2014. I had started exploring designing by then. Cheng Chit’s talk on straight couplets2 was absolutely mindblowing to me, and the Nefertiti Bust demonstrating the technique was simply stunning. I really wanted to learn more about the technique but did not understand everything he was talking about in the lecture. But I did remember he mentioned that straight crease couplets are a further development to his previous paper on curved crease couplets, which was published in the “Origami5” book. So, as soon as I went back home, I searched for it in the library.
The paper, “Simulation of Nonzero Gaussian Curvature in Origami by Curved-Creased Couplets,” is one of the first to showcase the possibilities of using hard curved folds in representational designs. And the models are not just limited to faces, heads and objects but are also suitable for animals, such as at this Seal.
Aside from his study of couplets, Cheng Chit was a versatile designer working in many styles, ranging from modular, including intersecting modulars, to more “traditional” representational animals based on variations of standard bases as well as bi-color designs and box-pleated ones. Going back to his Flickr page, it’s possible to see the huge range and variety of models he worked on.
Cheng Chit was still designing and making new models in the weeks prior to his passing. Like many of us in the origami community, he had moved off Flickr and gone on Instagram instead. I am honored to have inspired his Titan Arum design, after I posted on Facebook that I had to line up for 90 minutes to see (and smell) the giant stinky flower. But I am particularly fond of the Dalarna Horse, which has a lovely 3D body that is built into the folding rather than created through shaping.
The last time I met with Cheng Chit in person was in 2018, on my way back home to Sydney from 6OSME in Oxford via Singapore. He gave me this lovely Blue Elephant, which is part of my treasured collection of original origami artworks.
While Cheng Chit did not have a book to his name, many of his designs have been diagrammed and can be found in convention books and magazines. A listing of these models can be found on Gilad’s page as well as in the Origami Database. There is also an article on Origami and Catastrophe Theory published by the British Origami Society, and Ilan Garibi informed me of this interview in The Fold. Diagrams for Cheng Chit’s Rose were published in The Fold in 2011. A more obscure reference to Cheng Chit and why he has an affinity for paper can be found in the book “100 Inspiring Rafflesians, 1823-2003,” (p. 107). There is also a recent video on YouTube of Cheng Chit speaking about his art.
And lastly, with the permission of his family, here is a PDF file of the unfinished paper1 on straight couplets that he presented at 6OSME.
So, please do go and have a look at all or any of these, and celebrate the life and work of our origami friend and colleague.
Endnotes
1. We are using the Asian form of the name here, with the family name first. The designer is also known by the Western form: Cheng Chit Leong. [back]
2. Curved couplets are a pair of straight and curved folds that work together to form a 3D surface (shaped like a D). Straight couplets are like their curved-line equivalent but require more than just one pair of creases. Both are methods that tuck in paper from the adjoining polygonal surfaces on top. [back]
