Annika Cheng
My most recent body of work explores issues faced by the sino-diaspora through the recreation and recontextualization of traditional garments, objects, and practices. These works are meant to directly interrogate the ways in which Chinese culture has been appropriated, colonized, and orientalized by a Western gaze. By making these objects in fiber, a material that is soft and pliable, I am directly contradicting the conception that Chinese culture is something ancient and stagnant. But the recreation of traditional objects also calls into question my agency. As a member of the diaspora, what does it mean for me to reappropriate these symbols of culture? Growing up in America, it feels impossible not to internalize the “othering Western gaze”, and view your own culture through an orientalizing lens. But as the new generation of Chinese people, we should have the autonomy to determine what culture means to us, and fight against the concept that there is a “right” way to perform Chinese-ness.
美国旗袍 Beautiful American Cheong Sam (2020), began as a hang made child-sized Cheong Sam garment, and was stretched out with lace to fit an adult woman. The spaces between the original fabric form the character 美, meaning beautiful. 美also references the term for the United States, 美国, meaning “beautiful country”. This piece interrogates the ways in which the Cheong Sam, and by extension, Chinese culture, has been exploited and exotified by the American gaze.
Beautiful American Cheong Sam, Found fabric, 2020