#1. Asia For Beginners

Like most children of immigrant families, I come from a multi-national background. This piece pays homage to not only my Japanese and Chinese heritage (as seen in the Geisha and the Cantonese opera masks on the two outer figures), but also the British system of Hong Kong under which I was educated. The central figure represents my estranged sense of cultural identity, the pain and stigma that surrounded me as I grew up seen as an “outsider” in every community including my own, as well as the fear we were taught to have for the Chinese government.