Tseng Kwong Chi, born Hong Kong, China 1950-died New York City 1990 Search this
Medium:
gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
frame: 37 1/4 × 37 1/4 in. (94.6 × 94.6 cm) image: 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm)
Type:
Photography
Date:
1979, printed 2013
Gallery Label:
In his signature series East Meets West, Tseng Kwong Chi inhabited a persona he called the "Ambiguous Ambassador." Wearing a Mao suit (the gray uniform associated with the Chinese Communist Party) and mirrored sunglasses, he posed next to landmarks and monuments, many of them emblems of American national identity.
Tseng highlighted the signifying power of dress, gesture, and posture. As an immigrant and person of Chinese descent, he was also conscious of how Asians are stereotyped in the West. His donning of the Mao suit in public was a tongue-in-cheek performance of "Chineseness" that both played to and subverted assumptions about race, culture, and nationality.
Topic:
Architecture Exterior\commercial\recreation Search this
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
