Artist Statement
I represent the third generation of my family having been raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up “California-born Chinese” meant receiving Christmas money in red envelopes and ordering dim sum in broken Cantonese. While I still hold these memories close to my heart, unfortunately, much of my childhood was spent trying to ignore my Chinese heritage. Frustrated with the generational impact of assimilation, I was determined to challenge the paradoxes that the Western world had convinced me to be true. My journey of cultural reconnection influenced this pursuit of curating an aesthetic sensibility that transcends the oriental gaze enforced throughout Western society.
Taking inspiration from material culture found throughout Asia, I incorporate traditional crafts and textiles into my designs. As queer people, we are often told that our identities are “too contemporary” for the non-Western world but my art serves as a reminder that I am a product of artifacts and ancestors that came before me.