Between the fluid grace of ink and the rebellious pulse of beats, the Fong siblings &mdash; Fong Sheeney and Shelhiel &mdash; are carving their own artistic legacies &mdash; one stroke, one synth, one step at a time.

Art has a funny way of showing up unannounced. It doesn&rsquo;t always arrive grandly or make immediate sense. Sometimes, <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/earth-day-special-celine-tan-oscar-lee-of-co2-karbondioksida-lead-a-bold-eco-art">what feels mundane to one person becomes a masterpiece in the eyes of another.</a> For siblings Fong Sheeney and Fong Shelhiel, the journey into art wasn&rsquo;t mapped out. It unfolded organically &mdash; quietly, even. &ldquo;It started as a subtle curiosity,&rdquo; Sheeney recalls. &ldquo;Like how a single brushstroke could hold centuries of tradition, and yet still speak directly to you.&rdquo; She found her footing &mdash; and a form of peace &mdash; in the delicate rigor of Chinese calligraphy. &ldquo;As a child, I was captivated by the structure of a single character. It&rsquo;s simple, yet endlessly nuanced. Each version has its own weight, its own rhythm, its own emotion,&rdquo; she says. Over time, calligraphy became more than a craft. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a mirror. It&rsquo;s where I retreat, but it also challenges me. Every stroke reflects your breath, your state of mind, even eelings you haven&rsquo;t named yet. I return to the brush because it keeps me grounded.&rdquo;

For Shelhiel, the artistic awakening came through music &mdash; initially sparked by joining a national composition competition on 8TV. That early exposure nudged him into the Chinese pop scene, but it wasn&rsquo;t long before he veered off into more experimental territory: <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-lil-asian-thiccie-does-not-play-by-the-rules">underground electronica, beat-making, genre-bending soundscapes.</a> His sound today? Unapologetically forward-thinking, often chaotic, and never easily defined. &ldquo;I love that genre lines are blurring &mdash; even in the mainstream,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Music should just be celebrated for what it is. Sure, genres are useful as entry points, but ultimately, it&rsquo;s about what you feel.&rdquo; Sheeney has always known that her brother has the ear, taste and mind of a musician, and she admits that the first time she listened to Shelhiel&rsquo;s music when he was still finding his sound, she was gagged &ldquo;Something about it sounded...different,&rdquo; says Sheeney. &ldquo;Like he had tapped into another dimension. I remembered his gaze and moments on stages, and I remember thinking, "Oh. He&rsquo;s not just talented &mdash; he&rsquo;s meant for this.", she adds. Growing up in the quiet town of Sungai Petani, Kedah, creativity didn&rsquo;t shout &mdash; but it lingered in the corners, steady and sure. The Fong home, as Sheeney remembers it, was always alive with music, art, prayers, and the occasional afternoon of dreamy wonder. &ldquo;We both grew up playing with sound and line in our own way &mdash; me with brush and ink, him with beats and melodies,&rdquo; she says.

Their creative expressions may have taken different paths, but <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-how-darren-evonne-and-chloe-freshened-up-the-local-fashion-scene">they&rsquo;ve always had each other to lean on</a> &mdash; and to push each other forward. &ldquo;My brother&rsquo;s always been my guide, my challenger, and that force of inspiration in my life,&rdquo; Sheeney shares. &ldquo;He sees something in me, even when I don&rsquo;t, and he pushes me to evolve. I&rsquo;m forever grateful for that.&rdquo; For Shelhiel, that protective instinct runs deep. Being the older brother, he sees it as part of his role to be the enabler &mdash; the one who opens the door, even if he has to kick it open first. &ldquo;Sometimes when I look at Sheeney, it&rsquo;s like seeing a version of myself from years ago, back when I was just starting out in music,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;At the end of the day, if your own family doesn&rsquo;t back you &mdash; who will?&rdquo; Despite their rising global recognition, both Sheeney and Shelhiel <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/interview-this-is-how-noki-does-it">carry themselves with the kind of grounded poise</a> that makes you feel like you&rsquo;ve known them forever &mdash; even if it&rsquo;s your first conversation. There&rsquo;s no trace of ego, just an easy humility shaped by their upbringing and a close-knit support system that taught them how to stay rooted, even when the world starts paying attention. For Shelhiel, that sense of self is deeply intertwined with home. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Malaysia, and the diversity here, that made me who I am,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We speak different languages, come from different backgrounds, but there&rsquo;s a mutual respect that binds us. That&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll always be grateful for.&rdquo; And when it comes to music, that cultural melting pot is his playground. &ldquo;The sonic vocabulary in Malaysia is wild,&rdquo; he adds with a grin. &ldquo;Sometimes I feel like only Malaysians truly get it. But taking that sound to the world? That&rsquo;s the challenge &mdash; and the mission. It might take time, but it&rsquo;s worth the effort.&rdquo;

Sheeney credits her Malaysian heritage &mdash; <a href="https://www.hommesmalaysia.com/personalities/malaysian-independent-designers-interrogating-cultural-identity">a rich blend of linguistic nuance, spiritual depth, and visual storytelling</a> &mdash; for shaping the way she crafts her letters and forms. &ldquo;Being Malaysian means carrying a multi-layered identity,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I have Chinese roots, I was raised on Southeast Asian soil, and I&rsquo;ve been shaped by a spiritual openness born from diversity.&rdquo; There&rsquo;s a quiet pride in her voice as she reflects on a childhood spent navigating cultures. &ldquo;I was born into this beautifully complex tapestry &mdash; each thread with its own rhythm, values, and beauty. We grew up celebrating multiple festivals, hearing prayers in different tongues, switching languages depending on who we were speaking to. That kind of fluidity &mdash; it&rsquo;s in me. And naturally, it spills into my work.&rdquo; Scrolling through Sheeney&rsquo;s Instagram portfolio feels less like viewing a feed and more like stepping into a world woven with ink, emotion, and something just shy of magic. Her works &mdash; delicate yet powerful &mdash; are rendered in Chinese, a language I&rsquo;m still learning to decipher. And yet, somehow, the meanings feel within reach. Each character carries a kind of silent guidance, as though the strokes themselves are whispering their intent. I remember once watching a local calligrapher tear up mid-performance, his brush gliding across the paper like he was soundtracking a heartbreak. It felt cinematic &mdash; pain and beauty folding into every motion. That, Sheeney says, is the essence of calligraphy: it&rsquo;s not just about words, but the full presence of the mind, body, and spirit behind them. &ldquo;When I write, I&rsquo;m not thinking only about the literal meaning,&rdquo; she tells me. &ldquo;I want the strokes to feel like a painting. Even if someone doesn&rsquo;t understand Chinese, I hope they can still feel the emotion &mdash; longing, stillness, joy &mdash; through how the ink moves, how the space breathes. I want the words to speak beyond language, straight to the heart.&rdquo;

And they do. One of her recent pieces, titled &ldquo;第一次看到宇 宙,是和你四目相对的时候&rdquo;(&ldquo;The First Time I Saw the Universe Was When Our Eyes Met&rdquo;) stopped me in my tracks. For Sheeney, it&rsquo;s more than just a poetic turn of phrase. It&rsquo;s an emotion she could no longer hold in. &ldquo;That moment when you lock eyes with someone and it feels like the whole universe just gently folds into your chest,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I wanted to pour onto the page. The kind of love that stretches you, opens you up, makes you realise how much your heart can hold. Suddenly, you&rsquo;re full &mdash; completely full &mdash; of something as vast and infinite as the cosmos. That piece felt like a quiet explosion inside me.&rdquo; Shelhiel&rsquo;s production style &mdash; particularly his knack for vocal layering &mdash; feels almost like digital diarising: raw, intimate, and unfiltered. His latest track, &ldquo;Softman,&rdquo; from the 2024 EP &ldquo;SuperKiss: B,&rdquo; pulses like a heartbeat in freefall. It&rsquo;s a hazy, heart-on-sleeve ballad that finds Shelhiel stripped bare, asking the kind of questions that most of us are too afraid to say out loud: &ldquo;Would you still love me if I had nothing to give?&rdquo; It&rsquo;s music that makes it okay &mdash; maybe even cathartic &mdash; to cry. To feel swallowed whole by emotion. The visuals only add to the ache: Shelhiel and local creative Joseph Lee, more known as Jobroseph (who also features on the track) run in slow motion, lost in the fog, chasing an answer to a question that gnaws quietly in the background: &ldquo;The demons are calling me, I just ain&rsquo;t the guy you really want me to be. Baby, I&rsquo;m sorry.&rdquo; Call me sentimental, but &ldquo;Softman&rdquo; hits hard.

&ldquo;We speak different languages, come from different backgrounds, but there&rsquo;s a mutual respect that binds us. That&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll always be grateful for.&rdquo; &ndash; Shelhiel

Few local underground artists manage to strike a chord quite like Shelhiel &mdash; where sound and vision feel equally storied, deliberate, and impactful. He&rsquo;s not just building songs; he&rsquo;s constructing entire dimensions. &ldquo;Every time I create, I like to imagine a world I want to live in when I listen to the music,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;Even if it feels a little far out.&rdquo; There&rsquo;s no rigid formula, he says &mdash; just instinct and a hunger to experiment. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all about how I feel in that moment. I don&rsquo;t think everything has to be &lsquo;inspiring,&rsquo; necessarily. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s just about having fun and being true to yourself. But I do believe in testing the future, pushing the sound forward.&rdquo; The same fearless energy that pulses through Shelhiel&rsquo;s music also lives in his fashion. His stage presence is bold, playful, and delightfully eccentric &mdash; what he describes as &ldquo;alien but familiar.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s never just a plain fit. Even on his most toned-down days, you&rsquo;ll spot head-to-toe statement pieces, accessorised within an inch of their life. And don&rsquo;t even get started on the hair and makeup. &ldquo;I actually do my own makeup,&rdquo; he reveals, laughing. &ldquo;I like to experiment and see how chaotic it can get.&rdquo; Chaos, it turns out, is part of the charm. &ldquo;I push boundaries &mdash; especially for the persona I&rsquo;m embodying now, Mr Fong. Sometimes I wear things I think won&rsquo;t work for me, just to see what happens. It doesn&rsquo;t always work &mdash; sometimes it hurts,&rdquo; he jokes, &ldquo;but at least I get to learn from it and evolve the next time around.&rdquo; Right now, his style inspiration is deeply rooted in anime &mdash; specifically the offbeat, ultra-stylised characters drawn by manga icon Tite Kubo and the imaginative worlds built by cult-favorite Studio Trigger, known for projects like Promare, Delicious in Dungeon, and SSSS.Dynazenon.

For Shelhiel, fashion isn&rsquo;t just fashion. It&rsquo;s armour. It&rsquo;s language. It&rsquo;s rebellion. But above all, it&rsquo;s about joy. &ldquo;I want people to feel uplifted through my presence and my music,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;To remind them to love life, and hopefully, to inspire them, however I can.&rdquo; And inspire he does &mdash; especially his sister, Sheeney. &ldquo;Watching Shelhiel fearlessly mix languages, visuals, and sounds definitely gave me the courage to do the same,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;To take risks, while staying rooted in my own voice.&rdquo; She speaks of him with admiration &mdash; not just as a sibling, but as a creative force who seamlessly fuses music, fashion, visuals, and narrative into a singular, evolving performance. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s constantly reinventing. But no matter how far we stretch, we both still carry where we came from. That grounding &mdash; it keeps us honest.&rdquo; Both Sheeney and Shelhiel have carved out milestones in their respective fields, but they&rsquo;ll be the first to admit the journey is far from over. There&rsquo;s still more to learn, more to live through, more to refine. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re always trying to find that balance between precision and vulnerability,&rdquo; Sheeney reflects. &ldquo;That tension &mdash; that sweet spot &mdash; is where the piece begins to speak for itself. I don&rsquo;t chase perfection; I chase honesty. Because in both music and calligraphy, it&rsquo;s never just about the notes or the strokes. It&rsquo;s about what lingers in between.&rdquo; And what lingers is undeniable. Together, Sheeney and Shelhiel are unstoppable &mdash; subtle yet seismic, and anything but typical.

Cover Credits:
Photography Weeyang Creative Direction, Styling &amp; Words Syazil Abd Rahim Makeup Rachel Seok / PLIKA MAKEUP Hair Keith Ong Talent Management Shuzhen Photography Assistant Karl Styling Assistant Amelia Tan

August 2025 Cover: Chasing the horizon with Fong Sheeney and Shelhiel

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