Self-Images of Chinese-Americans
Yong Soon Min  Make Me, 1989
Photography with incised text 8 panels, overall 96"x120"

Provider: Kate Liu / ¼B¬ö¶²

In Make Me bisected images of Min's face, upon which are incised phrases like "model  minority" and "exotic emigrant" dare the view to see the artist through a haze of Asian stereotypes.  (Cahan , 85)

Ken Chu
I Need some More Hair Products (1988)

For Chu, I Need some More Hair Products (1988)  revives memories of summers as a teenager on the West Coast.  Lightly mocking a teenage longing, Chu portrays himself grooming before a mirror while perceiving himself as part of the American mainstream.  His reflection is of an Asian man while in his mind he visualizes being blond and "white."  The dual images present a conflict between who he sees and  how he perceives himself.  By surrounding this image with signs of the "good life" and pairing Asian and Western symbols.... Chu both suggests the successful adaptation of many Asians to American culture and their simultaneous inability to transcend the ultimate barrier to complete acceptance-- not being Caucasian.   (Cahan , 62)


Cahan, Susan and Zoya Kocur eds.  Contemporary Art and Multimedia Education.  NY: Routledge, 1996.

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