"of chicks, dicks,
and chinks" is about masculinity and race, particularly
in the lives of queer Asian Americans. I perform five
characters who embody several forms of Asian American masculinity
and pose questions of gender and racial presentation from
a queer perspective. These monologues focus on monotony,
rituals of masculinity, mistaken identities, and colonial/racial
hysteria. "of chicks, dicks, and chinks"
draws from such genres as drag kinging, avant-garde happenings,
spoken word, and Japanese folk performance.
i started this project in spring, 2003 for a class on race, gender and sexuality in performance with jill dolan. it began as two monologues interspersed with scenes from david henry hwang’s “m. butterfly.” the monologue, “norman” is the only remaining section from this initial piece. i then worked for a semester with joni jones to edit “norman,” as well as create three other characters. i based “karl” on research i did in mary kearney’s “feminist television criticism” class on representations and receptions of asian american gay male porn actors. i had also been reading frantz fanon’s black skin, white masks with omi osun olomo (joni jones) and decided to create a character who was both critical of fanon, as well as similar to him in his language and opinions. thus “the doctor” was born. finally, i created “dean” who was loosely based on my own experience as a female to male (ftm) trans person.
“dean” has gone through many transformations. she was originally very anecdotal, but in performing her in-progress twice, i became bored with her narrative style. at the direction of madge, i tried to make her character more expressive and performative, rather than descriptive. since my december in-progress performance, she has still changed a lot.
“shité” is the most recent addition. i wanted him to function as a trickster character--similar to “puck” in a midsummer night’s dream. i created the prototype in july using noh singing and movement. i was exploring the connection between my own personal/family history and noh theater. eventually after kim’s suggestion, i decided to tell a story from my grandfather’s perspective. this enabled me to inject a new sense of humor into the piece.
the video, “task/in progress” uses strategies of non-linear narratives i learned in samantha krukowski’s class. transparency and layering create new shapes using shadows and lines. i used characters and concepts from my monologues to inform my visual decisions. i see the monologues and the video as complementary pieces, to be seen in tandem with each other.
the installation is meant to be a prolonged exploration of the imagery and themes in both the performance and the video. my own personal experiences of race and gender presentation have been ongoing and constant. i wanted a prolonged period of time to for people to explore that constance.
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