”If you are too tired, if you lost confidence, if you feel down, I wish my words can cuddle up to you.
Women and children, we might be weak physically, yet it doesn’t mean we can be exploited.
Our beautiful souls never be soiled.”

Norico Chua is a Japanese artist based in Malaysia.
Published 5 picture-books as below:

“A Cake Reaching to the Sky” in 2013 (Malaysia)
Republished in 2015 (Malaysia)
Published in 2015 (Philippine)
Published in 2018 (Korea)
“The Werewolf and His Moon” in 2014 (Malaysia)
“The Yellow Lion and the Blue Lion” in 2015 (Malaysia)
“The Rocket Caterpillar” in 2017 (Malaysia)
“The Moonlight Princess” in 2017 (Malaysia)
Illustrations and poem book “Nowhereland” in 2021 (Malaysia)
The Yellow Lion and the Blue Lion” in 2021 (Malay Language Ver. Malaysia)

[Media Featured/Exhibition]

2014 　Featured at one of the Malaysian significant newspaper STAR
2017 　Broadcasted on documentary TV program in Japan
2018 　Interviews on the magazine in Singapore “UNLOCK JAPAN”
2020 　Joined “Artbook of selected illustration” as one of 105 illustrators
2020 　Interviews on the magazine in Malaysia “SENYUM”
2020 　Submitted works at University Malaya in KL exhibition
2020 　Exhibited at AG Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Nov. Broadcasted interview on CitiPlus FM
2022 Started regular publication on the national newspaper in Malaysia
2022 Broadcasted documentary “Malaysia in their Eyes” by ASTRO AEC
2022 Broadcasted Web documentary by 马来西亚星洲日报Malaysia Sin Chew Daily【刚好在这里(So here I am)】

One writer describes her illustration works besides picture-books are special mix of dreaminess and precision, shapes often suggesting more than one thing at once in a very poetic way, and beautiful rich colours and textures.

A writer from overseas once described Norico Chua’s poetry and illustrations as follows:

“Her illustrations blend meticulous detail with a sense of uncertainty, conveying multiple layers of meaning through poetic expression. They are rendered with beautiful colors and rich textures.”

Norico Chua lives in Malaysia with her Malaysian husband and their three children.

“To Live True to One’s Heart.”

Norico Chua is a Japanese-born fantasy poet and illustrator based in Malaysia.

Through the union of poetry and visual art, she explores themes of solitude, love, loss, memory, farewell, and renewal—questions that inevitably accompany the human experience.

Recurring motifs throughout her work include stars, the moon, forests, kingdoms, angels, the cosmos, dreams, and flowers. These are not fantasies created to escape reality, but allegories that reflect the cycles of life and the hidden landscapes of the human soul.

At the heart of her work lies an Eastern spiritual sensibility shaped by impermanence, the cycle of rebirth, and the interconnectedness of all existence. Yet her art is not religious in nature. Rather, it is a body of literary fantasy that contemplates loneliness, grief, and the emotions that resist language, inviting reflection on what it means to be human.

The figures inhabiting her world are neither heroes nor saviors.

They are beings who wander, who are wounded, who love, who lose, and who continue to exist in all their beautiful incompleteness.

What her work ultimately portrays is not the triumph over darkness, but life itself—quietly flowing onward while carrying darkness within.

Rather than offering hope untouched by suffering, Norico Chua creates stories that acknowledge the shadows we carry, revealing the quiet vitality that continues to endure within them.