In response to the screening of her films at esea contemporary, ‘This is China of a particular sort, I do not know’ and ‘Another beautiful dream’ as part of ‘An Inverted Journey of Counter Archiving’, Clare Chun-yu Liu will discuss her practice-based research on the European cultural heritage of chinoiserie. The discussion will delve into questions such as: How does one respond to a historical representation of themselves from a contemporary perspective? How can identity be approached within a diasporic framework while participating in the postcolonial review of history? And how can we reinterpret pre-colonial Sino-British history in relation to chinoiserie from a postcolonial and Taiwanese/diasporic Chinese perspective?

Following the talk, an in-person reading session will be led by the artist. Informed by the two films, the session will explore diasporic Chinese identity, (self-)representation, and the relationship between self and other. We will collectively read excerpts from Ien Ang’s ‘On Not Speaking Chinese’ and Trinh T. Minh-ha’s ‘When the Moon Waxes Red’. Autobiographical in nature, Ang’s texts provide insight into the complexity of belonging in the context of multiple migrations across generations and the urgency to articulate individual agency. Trinh’s philosophical and poetic writing addresses the problematic practice of representation in the Western tradition of anthropology. Through these texts, we will reflect on subjectivity, authenticity, and the ongoing journey of finding one’s place in a diasporic and transnational setting.

Image credit: ‘This is China of a particular sort, I do not know’, Clare Chun-yu Liu, 2020, 34:01 min, video still, image courtesy of the artist