Eastern Foreign Beauty

Artist Staement

Growing up, I have always been surrounded by aspects of Asian culture. Whether it be how we should act or look, to what we should hold value to, and how to strive for success. And as I grew up, I became more influenced by the youth culture within Asia such as media, styles, and news. I hope that through my work, people will come to understand how great and beautiful my culture is, despite the differences that everyone has.

This project was inspired by the app Douyin, which is known to be the Chinese exclusive version of TikTok. On Douyin, there is a trend called Jiē Pāi (街拍), which is essentially Chinese people dressing in a wide range of styles and genres and walking in public as if it as the normal thing while being photographed and recorded along the way. This trend was created as a way for Chinese people to show and take in national pride in who they are and where they are from. Eventually, it became more well-known and became a trend across the world, gaining the universal name “Chinese Street Fashion.” The style I specifically took inspiration from is more on the traditional side, where they would people would sometimes wear traditional cultural garments, the hàn fú (汉服) and qípáo (旗袍), and casually walk in modern settings.

The purpose of this project is to show and proclaim national pride within Asians and Asian Americans. For the past year (2020--2021), A movement of Anti-Asian Hate was created to protest against the recent violence on Asians. This series is to help with that movement, but instead of fighting back upfront with more protest, it fights back by presenting the beauty of Asian culture and where these models come from. The hope for this project is that people will become more interested and amazed by the beauty of Asian culture and not hate.