Creator
Cheng Chit Leong
English
Figurative
Geometric
Singapore
About Cheng Chit
About Cheng Chit
Cheng Chit (Leong is his surname) was a Singaporean designer who came to the art form later in life, after his first career promoting international investments for the Singaporean government. Born in 1943, when Singapore was still a relatively undeveloped British colony, he was first educated locally, then in the UK at the University of Glasgow as a Colombo Plan Scholar.
Origami was something he took up as a hobby to occupy time post-retirement. Inspired by the “Bug-War” between designers in the 1990s, Cheng Chit took up the challenge in learning how to design. Not having a background in the mathematics of (flat-)folding, he was free to explore and plunged into the world of 3D folds, using both straight and curved creases. The ideas behind them formed the basis of his paper “Simulation of Nonzero Gaussian Curvature by Curved-Crease Folding”, published in Origami5, the proceedings from the 5th International Meeting of Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education Conference.
Cheng Chit is a versatile designer who has worked with both representational and geometric models. They range 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.
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 an interview in The Fold, the Origami USA online magazine. 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, down below is a link to a PDF file of the unfinished paper on straight couplets that followed on from his first paper on curved couplets (mentioned above) presented at 5OSME. The work is unfinished, but it shows some of the ideas behind how to fold fully 3D designs from a single sheet of paper.
Models and designs may be used for personal, educational, and non-profit purposes. For commercial uses, please contact Reneeldesign (at) gmail (dot) com
Interview in The Fold - https://origamiusa.org/thefold/article/origami-designers-secrets-cheng-chit-leong
Origami and Catastrophe Theory published by the British Origami Society - https://www.britishorigami.org/cp-resource/origami-catastrophe-theory/
Abstract for his paper on curved couplets - https://origamiusa.org/system/files/thefold/thefold87_straight_crease_couplets_paper_leong.pdf
Cheng Chit (Leong is his surname) was a Singaporean designer who came to the art form later in life, after his first career promoting international investments for the Singaporean government. Born in 1943, when Singapore was still a relatively undeveloped British colony, he was first educated locally, then in the UK at the University of Glasgow as a Colombo Plan Scholar.
Origami was something he took up as a hobby to occupy time post-retirement. Inspired by the “Bug-War” between designers in the 1990s, Cheng Chit took up the challenge in learning how to design. Not having a background in the mathematics of (flat-)folding, he was free to explore and plunged into the world of 3D folds, using both straight and curved creases. The ideas behind them formed the basis of his paper “Simulation of Nonzero Gaussian Curvature by Curved-Crease Folding”, published in Origami5, the proceedings from the 5th International Meeting of Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education Conference.
Cheng Chit is a versatile designer who has worked with both representational and geometric models. They range 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.
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 an interview in The Fold, the Origami USA online magazine. 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, down below is a link to a PDF file of the unfinished paper on straight couplets that followed on from his first paper on curved couplets (mentioned above) presented at 5OSME. The work is unfinished, but it shows some of the ideas behind how to fold fully 3D designs from a single sheet of paper.
Models and designs may be used for personal, educational, and non-profit purposes. For commercial uses, please contact Reneeldesign (at) gmail (dot) com
Interview in The Fold - https://origamiusa.org/thefold/article/origami-designers-secrets-cheng-chit-leong
Origami and Catastrophe Theory published by the British Origami Society - https://www.britishorigami.org/cp-resource/origami-catastrophe-theory/
Abstract for his paper on curved couplets - https://origamiusa.org/system/files/thefold/thefold87_straight_crease_couplets_paper_leong.pdf
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