To Live As An Asian Woman, 2021, spatial installation, mixed mediaAs an Asian woman born in Germany and who has lived in Europe since, I have encountered various forms of racism and sexism.
Each time I speak up, most people stood in solitary with me, however, some reacted aggressively; they either scoffed or denounced me.
Thus, I, as an Asian female artist, feel a strong sense of responsibility to talk about racial discrimination through my work.
This page will argue how Asian women are objectified sexually in Western countries and how often it is overlooked, ranging from historical events to personal experience.
Each time I speak up, most people stood in solitary with me, however, some reacted aggressively; they either scoffed or denounced me.
Thus, I, as an Asian female artist, feel a strong sense of responsibility to talk about racial discrimination through my work.
This page will argue how Asian women are objectified sexually in Western countries and how often it is overlooked, ranging from historical events to personal experience.
Monkey House, 74x182cm, 2021
During military occupations, many young Asian women were kidnapped and forced to work as prostitutes. An institutionalized prostitution system was permitted and encouraged by the government and they constructed brothels for the US forces in order to generate revenue from the US militaries.
The police regularly invaded prostitutes who were “suspected” of spreading sexual disease. They would detain those, locking them up under guard in so-called “monkey houses” that had barred windows.The women were forced to have an injection of penicillin every other day and take medications until they vomit. Many of them were unable to withstand the pain of the injection and attempted suicide.
Their human rights were ignored and a comfort woman was brutally murdered by U.S servicemen in 1992. She was found dead with a bottle stuffed into her vagina and an umbrella into her anus. After the military occupations, large number of Asian women moved to America. However, up until now, they have been sexually objectified often.
The police regularly invaded prostitutes who were “suspected” of spreading sexual disease. They would detain those, locking them up under guard in so-called “monkey houses” that had barred windows.The women were forced to have an injection of penicillin every other day and take medications until they vomit. Many of them were unable to withstand the pain of the injection and attempted suicide.
Their human rights were ignored and a comfort woman was brutally murdered by U.S servicemen in 1992. She was found dead with a bottle stuffed into her vagina and an umbrella into her anus. After the military occupations, large number of Asian women moved to America. However, up until now, they have been sexually objectified often.
They are all beautiful, 2021, Video Installation
Yellow Fever is not preference. It’s racial prejudice.
The audio work suggests that how Westerners have viewed Asian women in an almost entirely sexual light. It also demonstrates yellow fever might be motivated by an antifeminist backlash in men who are against (White) women endorsing feminist values of independence and autonomy; wish to return to traditional gender roles.
Almost all of those interviewees started with a sentence that negates Asian women as submissive, but, nevertheless, they all mentioned that Asian women are submissive.
The rampant Asian sexism/fetishism is interrelated to immigration law, a military occupation of East and Southeast Asia, war brides, sex tourism, pornography, and mail-order brides. Moreover, the ‘gendering’ of races, whereby Asians as a racialized group are stereotyped as feminine, due to their purportedly shy, soft-spoken, and submissive racial ‘essence’.
While Asian women are already subject to sexual objectification as women, racial depersonalization involves a further dimension of objectification which is called ‘fungibility’ and in which a person is treated like an object interchangeable with other objects. Many Asian women still feel like they have been objectified, exotified, and hypersexualized because of their Asian appearance.
With all the stereotypical ideas of Asian, racially inflected comment or joke, people of colour must decide whether or not to question it, ignore it, analyze it, challenge it, file a complaint, seek others’ opinion and validation, etc.—all of this takes energy and a toll in ways that White people do not experience.
The audio work suggests that how Westerners have viewed Asian women in an almost entirely sexual light. It also demonstrates yellow fever might be motivated by an antifeminist backlash in men who are against (White) women endorsing feminist values of independence and autonomy; wish to return to traditional gender roles.
Almost all of those interviewees started with a sentence that negates Asian women as submissive, but, nevertheless, they all mentioned that Asian women are submissive.
The rampant Asian sexism/fetishism is interrelated to immigration law, a military occupation of East and Southeast Asia, war brides, sex tourism, pornography, and mail-order brides. Moreover, the ‘gendering’ of races, whereby Asians as a racialized group are stereotyped as feminine, due to their purportedly shy, soft-spoken, and submissive racial ‘essence’.
While Asian women are already subject to sexual objectification as women, racial depersonalization involves a further dimension of objectification which is called ‘fungibility’ and in which a person is treated like an object interchangeable with other objects. Many Asian women still feel like they have been objectified, exotified, and hypersexualized because of their Asian appearance.
With all the stereotypical ideas of Asian, racially inflected comment or joke, people of colour must decide whether or not to question it, ignore it, analyze it, challenge it, file a complaint, seek others’ opinion and validation, etc.—all of this takes energy and a toll in ways that White people do not experience.
Sideways, 2021