Wong Soo Yen was a devoted practitioner of traditional Chinese ink painting and calligraphy, whose artistic life was grounded in discipline, quiet perseverance, and deep cultural understanding. She graduated from Nanyang Girls’ High School and later joined the Ink Painting and Calligraphy classes at the Outram Park Community Centre Art Society, where she studied finger painting under Master Wu Zaiyan. Over the years, she participated in numerous exhibitions, including the National Day Art Exhibition, the Annual Exhibition of the Outram Park Community Centre Art Society, the Singapore Airlines 40th Anniversary Commemorative Art Exhibition, as well as charity ink painting exhibitions organised by the Chinese Women’s Association.

In the 1990s, Wong furthered her studies in traditional ink painting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts under Master Wu Molin. She firmly believed that finger painting and colour-and-ink painting shared the same core values—rhythmic ink movement, aesthetic refinement, and expressive spirit. Without a solid foundation in colour-and-ink painting, she felt that finger painting could not fully embody the essence of traditional Chinese painting.

In calligraphy, Wong began by copying the Cao Quan Stele, before advancing to Mi Fu’s semi-cursive script and later devoting herself to the cursive script of Wang Duo. She was particularly adept at integrating Mi Fu’s spirited brushwork into Wang Duo’s powerful and expressive structure, resulting in running–cursive works that were both agile and forceful. Her teachers described her calligraphy as “feminine in sensitivity, yet imbued with a robust, masculine strength.” In clerical script, she took Deng Shiru as her model, achieving a style that was steady, restrained, and classically elegant.