The young Willi Chen was bent over his examination desk at St Mary's College in Port-of-Spain. He was in the midst of his Cambridge Higher School Certificate exams when he was suddenly interrupted by an urgent call to report immediately to his home in Marabella because his father John was very ill. That moment signalled huge change in his life: he'd have to become suddenly more mature and responsible at the age of 16 and a half.That was the time when his father John Chen and his mother Iris–both immigrants from Guangdong Province, China–were in the process of constructing their Chinese-styled house on the southern bank of the Guaracara River. The family business–a grocery, rum shop and parlour–were located at the front of the house, while the living quarters were at the back.His father died at age 79. Willi Chen had to complete the building project.He succeeded, soon opening a bar-grocery-restaurant.Eight years later, he converted the business into a bakery, which he called Wonderbread Bakery.
A creative businessentrepreneur
With his ever-active, creative vision and business acumen, ten years later, in 1970, he made design changes to the building and launched a new business venture: printing and packaging. He called this business Printex Converters. Over the years, that humble business progressed from a single Heidelberg letterpress machine, which he himself operated, to an impressive spread of printing and packaging equipment, including a huge six-colour printing machine, able to print and varnish in one operation. This business success would have been impossible without the support of Chen's wife Gene and their three sons, who are currently part of the family business.Many have not seen Willi Chen in this light.He said: "I previously worked as a refinery operator in the Texaco oil refinery in Point-a-Pierre for five years, just across the Guaracara River."As he pointed to the refinery from his metal workshop, he continued to cut a length of iron on his chopsaw machine. He continued: "Because of the proximity of the river to our property, I had to pile drive some four-inch steel pipes into the bank of the river to support a retaining wall. I invented a boom with which we hammered the pipes 100 feet into the earth. I used an old four-wheel-drive jeep and cable to hoist the heavy hammer, which I constructed from several four-inch scrap iron pipes, welded together in a circle, and filled with concrete to increase the weight."
Self-taught welder,engineer and architect
Chen is a self-taught welder, fabricator, engineer and architect. Apart from his own building, he designed and supervised the construction of the San Fernando Arts Centre, along the Circular Road; the RC Church in Marabella; Plaisance Park RC Church and the Pagoda Building on Mon Chagrin Street, San Fernando.He is widely recognised and rewarded for his skills in the arts: drawing, painting, sculpture (especially in iron and steel), stage sets, poetry, short stories and plays. He has an impressive curriculum vitae of his artistic successes, with compliments from fans.
Dr Marina Ama Omowale Maxwell said of Chen:"Willi Chen is an artist-extraordinaire; he's a multi-faceted, multi-talented, multi-creative artist and stage set designer, playwright, art critic, poet and businessman."For his dedication and contribution in these areas, he has received the Humming Bird Silver Award and later, the Chaconia Silver Award.His other awards number in the dozens, from local and international sources.His favourite sculptural pieces, he said, included the metallic sculpture titled Solar Marinorama permanently displayed in the Central Bank, Port-of-Spain (64 feet long by 14 feet high). Another piece he mentions is the Escriva Light House Tower, a 40-foot steel tower which stands as a permanent fixture in the Point-a-Pierre roundabout.He's also proud of the sculpture Triumphant Christ–a 12-foot by 30-foot metal mural which is the frontispiece of the Christ The King RC Church in Les Efforts East, San Fernando.
Talents in fiction
Willi Chen's intimacy with our Trini landscape and ethnic mix of cultures is reflected vividly in his short stories. Browsing through Chen's written works, he evidently has an intimate awareness of rural sugarcane estate folkways and customs, where the man ruled the home. He raises issues such as domestic violence convincingly in his fiction. For instance, here is an extract from one story titled Lalloo's Wrath:"Dulcie accepted the beating from Lalloo as being routine. After all, was he not her husband? Was it not his privilege to do just that, as one who had always provided for the house, as man of the house, its master? Yet it had gone too far yesterday. He had grabbed hold of her hair, striking her again and again on her cheeks."This kind of cruelty to our women continues to this day.Chen brings his characters to life with concise, simple descriptions; for instance, he describes a husband "swinging in a jute bag hammock in a drunken state; demanding food and sometimes pelting the wife with the plate of food, which was not to his taste."Chen has appeared in many public reading sessions, and easily keeps his audience absorbed as he dramatises his stories.
Chen the artist
Willi Chen is well known as an artist. He paints and draws in the traditional way but also enjoys abstract, cubist renditions in bright, glowing Caribbean colours, using geometric shapes. He has exhibited his work on his own as well as in group shows. Right now, he is in the planning stage of putting on a one-man exhibition. He's also working on a novel to be published in the near future. His next commission (together with one Mr Vidale), is a large sculpture of Dr Eric Williams to be erected on the Harris Prominade in San Fernando."It's not going to be a photographic representation, but one which will reflect his works, values and philosophy," said Chen. Willi Chen is a truly dedicated artist. His energy and versatility is an example not only to youth, but to anyone thinking of trying new directions in life, to fulfil their potential.