Cube enthusiast makes a portrait of astronaut

The owner of a cube puzzle store and teaching studio in Changsha, Hunan province, spent eight hours making a portrait of Wang Yaping, one of the three astronauts on the Shenzhou XIII mission.

"I want to show my respect for the three astronauts, especially Wang, the first female Chinese astronaut to enter the space station," the store owner, Huang Qiang, said.

Wang has been dubbed the "star-fetching mother" by Chinese netizens.

The portrait uses 560 cubes like those used in Rubik's cubes. They are yellow, white, blue, red and orange cubes. Four Chinese characters are incorporated, meaning "China aerospace".

Huang has also used cubes to make portraits of medical workers who have devoted themselves to fighting COVID-19 across China.

He started to play with cube puzzles during high school. Because of his affection for them, he joined the cube society while attending college. He practiced with cubes on buses, in school canteens — basically whenever he had spare time.

His record for solving a cube puzzle is 8 seconds.

Although he majored in chemistry, Huang opened a store in Changsha upon graduation. In his studio he teaches people to solve cube puzzles.

"I had strong support from my parents, who said that I wouldn't know what was possible unless I tried," Huang said.