HOOI-YING ASH ZHANG 张海莹

   DIASPORA


A Movement


Type:     Video
          Poem
          Performance

Duration: 2:55 min

Location: Willem de Kooning

Year:     2023



Watch:  A Movement


A Movement is a poem and visual that resulted from conversations that resulted from the Dear Dad, performance. Zooming into the experiences of Qi Qi and Terence and their relation to their immigrant parents and their Chinese diaspora identity and how this can be expressed through their own respective styles. It is a layered piece in which the question of language and embodied language becomes central in understanding this identity.

Hooi-Ying transformed the poem into a visual poem by giving Qi Qi and Terence the character ‘舒服’/ Shūfú (meaning comfort) as a movement concept. Shūfú, because a common idea 2e and 3e generation Chinese diaspora are taught by their parents, is to ‘be’ comfortable, to not stand out too much, “don’t respond to racism on the streets so we can be comfortable”, as opposed to ‘feeling’ comfortable. This is a direct parallel to Hooi-Ying’s mother’s description of her relationship to her dad “We are comfortable, we don’t bring up topics that can upset either of us.”

During the presentation of this video, Hooi-Ying performed the first part of drawing the characters with Qi Qi and Terence in the physical realm, thereby adding three-dimensionality and personal positioning to it.


Credits: Thank you to Qi Qi Jin and Terence Ip Vai Ching for their creative input through their freestyle dance and their openess in sharing their experience and emotions.