And if you believe in the Chinese Zodiac signs, 'Ox people' are in for a good 1997.

LEE Hui Lian, 11 is very much an 'ox person'. The daughter of famous Malaysian artist LEE Kian Seng and his wife, fellow artist Shoko LEE, Hui Lian has amazing self-confidence for one so young.

Inspired by the sign she was born under, Hui Lian has created a unique watercolour painting of a bull.

The bull, however is different from any other you've seen. Multi-coloured, it appears to be a hemophrodite - neither male nor female.

"I wanted to be different when I worked on my painting, that's why the bull is personalised.

The bull has a cow's udder as well as a saddle and coloured horns which are almost touching each other," said the Klang lass.

Hui Lian said the bull was a happy one. "It is also an energetic one," she added.

A proud father, Lee said that Hui Lian was inspired to paint and sketch from a young age.

"She seems to be particularly fascinated with Chinese Zodiac signs, especially her own," he said.

Hui Lian said because of her hectic schedule, she could not do much art work during weekdays.

But weekends and school holidays are almost exclusively spent on her first love - art.

Her mother, Shoko spends a lot of time taking Hui Lian and her elder sister Hui Ling to interesting places in Klang where the three of them spend time sketching and painting.

Lee Kian Seng feels that his daughter should be encouraged to paint, because in his words, "Art is an education, it is a substance of life".

"Besides, I have no worries about her studies as she is one of the top students in her school," he said.

Strangely though, Hui Lian is undecided about her ambition.

"I may yet decide to follow my dad's footsteps, but at this moment I'm still unsure," she said.

by Brian Martin, The Star Malaysia,  February 7, 1997