Key Terms: diaspora, shared memory, history, mundanity, sound, dissent, participation, community

MEETING MINUTES

The 8th and final working group session involved several artists working to examine and even deconstruct the shared cultural memories of Asian identity, with a keen focus on rejecting established colonial rationalizations.

Hoi Leung took the lead and introduced a work by Tsui Kuang Yu, entitled “Exercise Living: Stay Calm.” As he described it, the work was an experiment conducted in San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square, which has evolved over the years to become an integral public amenity for residents of Chinatown and beyond. In the video, the main subject approaches a group of elderly residents going about their daily routines, and simply stands holding a discreet length of tubing which begins to leak plumes of smoke. Hoi points out the peculiarity of the scene as both patrons and pigeons alike mostly ignore the subject, pointing out the strange behavior but never directly confronting it. When Tsui Kuang Yu’s subject departs at the end of the video, the microcosm he leaves behind returns to its mundanity once more, which is the videographer’s way of pointing out systems otherwise ignored, and the interactions between places of historical significance versus the habits of everyday life.

Lo Lai Lai Natalie’s “Goodbye Hong Kong” continues the exploration of contrasts and idiosyncrasies with its reinterpretation of Tian Han’s theme song of the same name. Han was a seminal Chinese anti-imperialist activist and playwright who was eventually jailed and murdered for his criticism of Mao’s regime, during the Cultural Revolution. Covered here by Lo’s collaborator Hin-yan Wong, the piece takes what she describes as a protest song and transforms it into a modern, ‘karaoke’ styled video with the vocalist concealed and a sign interpreter to accompany the subtitled lyrics. The work directly prompts audience participation, mirroring what Lo describes as a loop-like structure of social movements: slogan — protests — unrest — repeat. She also spoke on how her experience learning the particulars of farming in Hong Kong influenced her work, and she describes finding “hope in the soil.”

The final presenter was Angela Su, who shared a video of hers called “Caspiar.” The work features a mixed-language interview with an immigrant from the titular island, a fictional amalgamate of Hong Kong and the complex diasporic experience it has come to represent. According to Angela, the piece is intended to question what constitutes a ‘home’ and how significant historical events come to be remembered and commemorated by subsequent generations. The Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Umbrella movement are provided as two such examples, which serve to bridge an immense temporal gap through a similar spirit of dissent and liberation. Angela also described the video and its deadpan tone as a critique of the colonial gaze, long-internalized by Hong Kong citizens. The video ends with the words of Marcel Proust, suggesting a dialogue between his concept of ‘involuntary memory’ and the private cultural memories shared within a diasporic community.

Notes taken by CJ Tio
Revised by Moises De La Cruz

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