DAI
5:17 min., Sound, 2018
In collaboration with Ashley Chae & Anson Li
Coming to terms with our third-cultural identity.
RESIST: We grew up resisting and concealing our cultural identities and heritage, too ashamed to express it in the Western societies that we all grew up in. We chose to conform, wanting to fit in, believing that white-washing ourselves was better.
EMBRACE: Suddenly we began seeing the beauty in our cultures. It was something that made us unique and stand out within our Western societies. We wanted to know more about our families’ pasts, and the importance of the family traditions we celebrated. Understanding that our cultural backgrounds are forever ingrained in our upbringing, we began wanting to know more.
BUILD: There was a separation between these two sides, one part of ourselves that rejected our heritage, but the other side that wanted nothing more than to understand the culture that our families grew up in. Thus, we had to diverge and take our own path, a non-black and white area, but rather, a grey one, an identity that encapsulates both unique sides of ourselves to form a new identity.
AFTERWORD: In sharing our stories, we realized that this project has been more than just an outlet for our shared experiences growing up. More than just discovering and understanding our own individual identities, we have found a community of other individuals who have also experienced this same sense of confusion and third-cultural self-conflict. But despite increasing conversation around this subject matter, it still lacks noticeable awareness. Through spending so much time expanding upon this subject, we realized a new sense of responsibility that we owe, both to this phenomenon and to ourselves. Having struggled with this within ourselves since we first realized our inner-resistance, we now aspire to provoke progression.
By.........Ashley Chae, Anson Li & Royee Weng
Featuring...........................Onshun Lo
Garments designed by.................Anson Li
Edited by............Ashley Chae & Royee Weng
Soundscape.........................Royee Weng
Featuring...........................Onshun Lo
Garments designed by.................Anson Li
Edited by............Ashley Chae & Royee Weng
Soundscape.........................Royee Weng