Taiwanese artist Feng Jiang’s Eastern Body Diary created an awed silence in the room as audience members watched his internal struggle with his sexuality and race materialize in exasperated dance. Jiang began the performance seated at a table and typing at a laptop, then began quipping with a disembodied voice that represented a Grindr chat. “No Asians, no blacks,” the speakers sounded, “You’re Asian. Asians are only bottoms.” What began as a divulgence of casual daily discrimination against East Asian men and their emasculation evolved into a more abstract demonstration of inexplicable frustration with systemic racism. The voiceover began to explain to Jiang what was expected of Asians (the term “Asians” often dismissing the diversities of Asians and Asian Americans in the context of the US) and the artist slowly began to obey the commands, running left and right in increasing swiftness until his body became frenetic and twisting on the floor, unable to escape the constraints of Western identification.

​

——Excerpted from "Performance Artists Probe East Asian Identity and Power Dynamics," Hyperallergic

by Akiko Ichikawa and Danielle Wu

​

閱讀原文 Read the Original Post