Huang Yong Ping was born on 19 February 1954 in Xiamen, Fujian Province, and died on 19 October 2019 in the 13ᵉ arrondissement of Paris. He was a contemporary artist of Chinese origin who became a naturalised French citizen. HYPing lived and worked in France from 1989 and settled in Ivry-sur-Seine in the late 2000s.
The "Ocean Snake" is a creation by Huang Yong Ping made in 2012. It takes the form of an aluminium sea serpent skeleton, 130 m long. It is installed on the Loire estuary, in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, France, in the Loire-Atlantique department.
The shape of the snake is reminiscent of the Saint-Nazaire bridge, which can be seen nearby, and the shape of the vertebrae is reminiscent of the carrelets, the emblematic fishing nets of the region.
