Kitty Revolution Series

The globalization of the iconic Hello Kitty character has internationally spread “cute culture” and this has an undeniable relationship with the creation, maintenance, and propagation of Asian female stereotypes in the West. Hello Kitty is a recurring image in my work because she is a universally recognizable symbol of pop culture that exemplifies the visual language used by society to dictate Asian female identity. This is characterized by cuteness, meekness, submissiveness, and a playfulness that can be interpreted as provocative. Hello Kitty’s cross generational appeal blurs the line between innocence, vulnerability, infantilization, and sexuality. Showing that, “stereotypes are not a false representation, but rather, an arrested representation of a changing reality”. By employing Hello Kitty and other pop culture icons rooted in systemic patriarchy to highlight the intersectionality of being a minority female, I hope to advance this changing reality. I view this as an act of defiance, taking back a symbol of oppression to create a counter narrative that serves to empower women.

Evolution: The Theory of "The Asian Mystique" is a satirical take on the human evolution timeline. Western society perpetuates certain Asian cultural stereotypes about Asian personality, femininity, and sexuality, placing them within a racial framework which sees them as a model minority. As immigrants, our need to belong and to assimilate with North American society encourages us to live up to these confines, losing sight of who we are as individuals, which in turn helps maintain them. Immigrant children are constantly told to go with the flow, follow the rules, and not to bring shame on to your family, this is especially true in Asian cultures. The problem with assimilation is that there is a sense of self loss at every point of mimicry, making individual Asian female identity much harder to forge and maintain. Ultimately, as Asian females bow to their feminine trappings, their sense of self is deflated until they can no longer hold their own.

A common characteristic of a diasporic community is shared collective trauma. Passing this racial trauma from generation to generation creates a social remembrance, which becomes an important part of processing and mourning these experiences. this helps individuals from diasporic communities create a powerful group memory of past discrimination as a result of systemic racial hierarchies created by white antagonists providing them with a foundation to create counter narratives to resist these experiences. Asian American families, however, lack this effective means of passing on collective memories. Because of their position as “model minorities” and the pan-Asian cultural concept of filial piety, Asian immigrants are taught not to “rock the boat”. Thus, the pain and stress of discrimination remain individualized and internalized instead of being passed on as collective experiences, making it harder not only to process this racism, but more importantly, to resist the realities of the racial hierarchy. Using stereotypical visual imagery in pop culture, I wanted to document the relationship that Asian immigrants have with white racial hierarchy. As immigrants, our need to “pull up our boots straps” and assimilate, forces us to live up to the confines that the model minority myth continues to perpetuate. With this photo series, I want to encourage a discourse about the importance of collective memory because through documentation, remembrance, and sharing, we can come to understand the of the residual effects of this history and create a counter narrative to break free of these social structures.